What Will be the Fate of Your Unwanted Garment?

Ebay, Craigslist, Etsy or for-profi t resale store

A Friend or Relative

Do you live in a rural area?

Bummer! Landfi llRoughly 95% of all textiles are recyclable!

Is it a men’s or children’s item?

Hooray! Your piece will be reused. Reusing this item in its original state uses 95% less energy than making a new garment.

Th ere is a decent chance that the clothing will be sold for reuse in a country such as Zambia or Uganda

Your garment will most likely be broken down chemically for use in items such as packaging and other plastic products

Your garment will most likely be recycled for use in items like stuffi ng, insulation and packaging or mixed with virgin fi bers and spun into new yarn for use in items like carpet underlay, towels and upholstery

Your garment will most likely end up as a cleaning wiper for industry

Should have kept it! Your clothing will most likely be sold to a wealthy collector or dealerTh is type of item accounts for the largest profi t sector of many rag dealers

Th ere is a decent chance that your garment will be sold for reuse in an Eastern European country

Th ere is a good chance that your garment will be sold for reuse in a country such as India

ReferencesBotticello, Julie "Between Classifi cation, Objectifi cation, and Perception: Processing Secondhand Clothing for Recycling and Reuse." Textile: Th e Journal of Cloth & Culture Volume 10, Issue 2 (2012): 164-183Fletcher, Kate. Sustainable Fashion & Textiles: Design Journeys. London: Earthscan, 2008.

Hawley, Jana M. "Textile Recycling as a System: A Micro/ Macro Analysis" Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences Volume92, Issue 4 (2000): 40-43

Hawley, Jana M. "Digging for Diamonds: A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Reclaimed Textile Products" Clothing and Textiles Research Journal Volume 24, Issue 3 (2006): 262-275

Steinbring, Yvonne and Rucker, Margaret "Utilization of Post-Consumer Textiles and Clothing" Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences Volume 95, Issue 2 (2003): 33-37

You’re going to send it to ...

YesRoughly 48% of clothing

will be sold for reuse

Charity ShopRoughly 1 in 5 garments are clean enough and in good enough condition to put out to sell

Yes

Yes

Yes Yes

Yes

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

Is your garment a warm weather item?Yes

Th ese highly desirable items make up about 2% of all donated clothing

Is it vintage and from a brand name? Is it made from a luxury fi ber like cashmere or camel?

Is your garment vintage or brand-name like Gap, Ralph Lauren or H&M?

One of those clothing collection bins

Th e Trash

Is the garment clean, pressed and undamaged?

YesTh ere is a roughly 20%

chance that your garment will be resold by the charity

YesYour town is probably too far from a textile

recycling facility to be worth transporting

Is it moldy, wet or stained with bodily fl uids?

Is your garment made from a material that attracts oil like polyethylene or attracts water like cotton?

NoTh ere is roughly 80% chance

your garment will be sold by the non-profi t to a “rag dealer”, a

for-profi t textile recycling company

Is it made from mostly plant or animal fi bers?

Th at 95-99% of textiles are recyclable yet only about 15% are recycled? Reusing a garment in its original state uses 95% less energy than making a new garment.

Did You Know...

2013 | Alexandra Pappalardo Rose | www.imalexandrarose.com