How to know when to throw out your clothes
Yep, that's right. How do you know when to throw out your old clothes? That's right, in the trash. Well, after you repurpose what you can into rags for household use. And after you realize there is no textile recycling collection near you. And you're left staring at the pile, wondering what should go to charity. Well, according to Peter Walsh, in his book, "It's All Too Much," it might be better to throw clothes out more often than you think. While we all like to bundle up all of our old clothes and give them away to Goodwill as we try to reduce the clutter in our lives, it turns out that charities end up using less than half of the clothes they collect. The cost of sorting and cleaning and transporting often outweighs the value. Walsh offers up this rule, "If you wouldn't give the article to a family member, then it's probably not good enough for charity." Good rule for any donation when you think about it!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-26-2008 @ 8:06AM
Femme Verve said...
Some interesting quotes:
"Salvation Army doesn't even unpack most of the donated clothing but sells it to companies for export to third-world countries."
“Every single clothing factory in Zambia went out of business; we do not have a clothing industry left in the country because the secondhand clothes are coming in.”
We really may want to rethink donating clothes (or at least to whom) as an environmentally and socially, conscious act. Buy less, reuse, repurpose, recycle cotton, resell or give only to orgainisations you really know where your clothes will wind up.
Check out Shantha Bloemen's film T-SHIRT TRAVELS
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/tshirttravels/film.html
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3-26-2008 @ 8:57PM
Patricia said...
Good tips and link, thanks for sharing!