The textiles industry is one of the largest in the entire world today. After all, everyone needs clothes to wear, from everyday garments to work and military uniforms to formal wear and more. The United States is a particularly large producer and market for consumer textiles, ranging from T-shirts and sneakers to ball gowns and designer jackets. The modern, average American buys about twice as many clothes as they did just 20 years ago, and many people have an outfit for every day of the month. However, when a person’s old clothes are no longer desirable, these clothes are not always donated to military charities or for helping families in need. Not all clothes end up as donations for non profit organizations. Rather, a lot of clothes are simply thrown away or recycled for industrial purposes, and these old clothes aren’t doing anyone any good in a landfill. Organizations that accept clothing donations are open every day of the year, and they urge Americans today to give donations for non profit organizations rather than discard old garments. It is simple to give clothes to donations for non profit organizations, and it can feel highly rewarding, too. What are the current rates of donating or discarding old clothes?
Charity or Waste
Everyone has old clothes that they do not want to wear anymore, and unless someone starts building up an enormous wardrobe, he or she will do something to get rid of those old textiles to make room for new ones. The bad news is that textiles in the United States have some of the word reclamation rates out of all industries with recyclable materials. It is estimated that only about 15% of used clothes in the United States are donated or otherwise put to good use, with all the rest being thrown away instead and send to landfills. The typical American adult discards nearly 70 pounds every year of used textiles, such as clothes, bed sheets, and tablecloths, and this can add up fast. Millions of pounds of unwanted clothes are discarded annually, and this fuels the growth of landfills. Many of these old clothes may be perfectly usable, and they are better off becoming donations for non profit organizations.
The good news is that Americans do have a robust charitable spirit, and this can extend to clothes. While a lot of clothes are discarded, the remaining 15% or so get sent to charity sites as donations for non profit organizations, and these clothes can add up. Millions of old garments and accessories are given away per year, and donors not only slow down landfill growth but may also receive tax rebate forms for their donations. Most Americans are charitable in some form or other; 95.4% of Americans today take part in charitable giving on some level or another, and this means that clothes donations may be boosted by tapping into this existing charitable spirit. Americans are clearly already in the mood to give. What can be done is to stoke that charitable spirit further and allocate more old clothes for donations instead of waste. Aside from gas money, it’s free to donate, and nearly anyone can do it. What might a donations plan look like?
How to Give
Many American households have more clothes and accessories than the people there are using, and those excess clothes can certainly be given away. To start, a household’s members can all gather every single piece of clothing and personal accessories that they own from across the home. All of these clothes and shoes are gathered into a single massive pile on the floor, and this makes a comprehensive inventory for the family members’ convenience. This pile may end up becoming surprisingly large.
Now that everything is together, everyone can start picking through the pile and choose what to keep, and what to donate. Clothes to donate may be out of fashion, the wrong size, or redundant with other articles. These clothes can be collected in boxes or bags, and once the sorting is done, a person can take these clothes to the nearest charity collection site. The person may follow any additional directions that the volunteers there provide, and the donor may also receive a tax rebate form, as mentioned above.