Seasonal closet purge is a semi-annual routine for many of us. Doesn’t fit? Didn’t wear it? Doesn’t bring joy? Into the giveaway box it goes. But then what? To inform your decisions we’ll touch on the primary pathways for post-consumer textile waste recycling and disposal: reuse/repurpose, donation, textile recyclers/exporters, and landfill.
Textile recycling by the numbers
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s latest data available (2018), Americans generated 17 million tons of textile waste from residential, commercial, and institutional sources. This number excludes the reuse stream, which is not tracked by the EPA.
Of those 17 million tons, 15% was recycled, 19% was combusted with energy recovery, and 66% was landfilled.
Fast fashion and consumptive culture are the primary culprits contributing to this staggering number, which amounts to more than 80-100 lbs. per capita annually.
Reuse/Repurpose
Aside from source reduction, keeping clothing and fabrics in use and out of the waste stream is the environmental ideal. As an individual, consider whether repairing or tailoring are viable options. Clothing swaps and thrifting are also great ways to keep your pre-loved garments in the reuse cycle and to refresh your wardrobe without creating additional environmental impact.
Increasingly, major clothing brands are dipping their toes into sustainable fashion initiatives, although many are in the pilot stage. Well-known names including Tommy Hilfiger, Eileen Fisher, and Madewell are experimenting with ‘sustainable fashion’ initiatives such as take-back, remaking, and resale programs which extend product and material lifespans. Patagonia has been an advocate for repairing and ‘re-homing’ its products for decades. For products at the end of their useful life, they offer a recycling program giving users the “satisfaction of knowing” their old gear will not end up in a landfill or incinerator.
For a fun and purposeful approach, try crafting with textiles. Use old fabric to make pillow and cushion covers, holders for laptops and kindles, book covers, wall art, shopping bags, or cleaning cloths. For the highly ambitious, try a graphic t-shirt quilt.
Donation centers
Donation centers are an important social resource and are a no-brainer for keeping clean, unstained, gently used clothing, shoes, and accessories in circulation. Most are non-profits that benefit the health and well-being of the community through job creation, affordability, and inclusion.
Despite the admonition to donate only clean and gently used items, thrift stores are awash with clothing that is unfit to be worn. Some of these cast-offs are sold to the textile recycling market, but this fact should not be considered a license to donate unusable clothing, as it adds to the overall operating expenses of the center.
Recycling/Exporting
The textile recycling and export channel is a $3.4 billion+ global business and is an essential component of the ecosystem managing textile waste. According to a report published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), only 20% of what is donated to thrift/charity centers is resold directly to consumers. The remaining 80% is sold to sorters, graders, and brokers. From there:
- 45% is re-sold as apparel by the pound, either domestically or through export
- 30% flows to the industrial rag business
- 20% is used to make industrial stuffing and insulation
- 5% is either landfilled or incinerated.
- Less than 1% is reconstituted with fiber-to-fiber recycling
Ethical issues related to clothing exports to developing countries are a much-debated topic. On the one hand, these exports provide value to the receiving country through affordability and job creation. Conversely, they may undermine local economies, stunt the growth of the local textile sector, and potentially simply shift the landfill burden.
Landfill
Textile waste occupies 5% of US landfill space and can take up to 200 years to fully decompose. It generates methane and can leach toxic chemicals and dyes during decomposition.
Best practices to lower the environmental impact of textiles include buying quality over quantity, purchasing natural fibers whenever possible, and landfilling textiles as the last alternative.
Back to your giveaway box. If you’re not going to reuse or repurpose, and it’s not up to snuff for the donation center, then just drop it off for recycling, right? Not so fast. While there are many recycle-by-mail options (for a fee) including Ridwell, Trashie, and TerraCycle, in researching this article the author was unable to identify a local drop-off site that would accept un-wearable clothing or shoes for recycling. If you know of one, please email us at contact@westerndisposal.com and we’ll share it with our readers in the next issue.
Sources:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Report: Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: 2018 Facts and Figures Fact Sheet
National Institute of Standards and Technology News: Your Clothes Can Have an Afterlife, May 9, 2022
The Association of Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Fact Sheet
TheSlowLabel.com blog
