Fashion

[traveler]

A few, very few, are sold in thrift stores.  The rest are made into fiber for other items.  But most end up in lanfills.  This article explains it better.

clothing news

[Ibby114]

Which is why I'm selective where I donate my clothing- most of mine go to charities that help people going who are going  back into the workforce. 

[SeaMaiden]

I know when you donate to charities they sell lots overseas to poor nations. A very small percentage of the top quality clothes go into resale in the stores in the USA.

[ALRATIBA]

FTA:  Not everyone agrees. Georgetown University’s Rivoli, for example, says the secondhand clothing trade creates jobs in not only selling but also cleaning, repairing and tailoring. Karen Tranberg Hansen, an anthropologist at Northwestern University, has argued that secondhand clothing in countries like Kenya, Zambia, Lesotho and Uganda fills a different niche than the textile industry. “There are different segments of the population that have different desires,” she says. “It is not a direct competition.” Secondhand clothing, traditional clothing that is made locally, Asian imports—different people buy different things, she asserts.

I buy yarn from Nepal ... made from recycled sari silk.

[TY]

I read the Newsweek online article about the textile recycling and I see that personally at a local Value Village thrift store. There's 10 Big Steel Box containers always on the property and an open back freight truck during business hours that has those bundled up clothes that will be going to a textile recycler. All those polyester ITY jersey tops that are snagged and pilled along with other synthetic fabric clothes likely end up there. 

People also dump their unwanted furniture there as well. It costs money to dump furniture at the landfill so people just dump them now on the side of the road or at a big thrift store as they have a drive through area to drop off donations.

[TY]

Just to spur this discussion, the Newsweek article link via MSN is:

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/no-one-wants-your-old-clothes/ar-AAim8tF?ocid=spartandhp

[MalteseMomma]

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@Ibby114 wrote:

Which is why I'm selective where I donate my clothing- most of mine go to charities that help people going who are going  back into the workforce. 

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I had a lot of beautiful expensive womens suits to donate to ..opps (almost said the name) for women entering the work force.I do not drive and asked if they could pick them up. They replied with a big NO!

So off they went to the V V A  They pick up weekly,in my area   or by request.

[ROMARY]

Sometimes it's just better to set them out front on sunny weekends, marking them with a Free sign.  'Little by little', most of the items will disappear.   Taken by folks who will really use/wear them. 

[Andreatoo]

@MalteseMomma

We've donated to them frequently over the years.

[Magny]

At the suggestion of another poster, I am reading "Over-dressed. The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion", by Elizabeth L Cline. Tells you all you want to know & more about recycling clothes, the tremendous influx of polyester, the workings of factories here & abroad, the stores that constantly have new & cheap coming in, & those who obsessively buy it.  We also find out why better garments are not necessarily any better than cheap ones.  This is a real eye-opener.