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What are you supposed to do with old clothes?
- gatestore 4y agoThis is the latin american flowchart of old clothes Clothes to go out -> Clothes to use only at home -> Sleepwear -> Kitchen cloth https://www.tiktok.com/@celessalas/video/6951157711803354373?is_from_webapp=v1&item_id=6951157711803354373 https://www.tiktok.com/@celessalas/video/6951157711803354373... People also use old clothes to make rugs https://www.craftpassion.com/recycle-tutorial-woven-rag-rug-2/ https://www.craftpassion.com/recycle-tutorial-woven-rag-rug-... https://mypoppet.com.au/makes/7-ways-to-make-a-rag-rug-from-old-clothes/ https://mypoppet.com.au/makes/7-ways-to-make-a-rag-rug-from-...
- haspoken 4y agohttps://archive.ph/31MAC https://archive.ph/31MAC
- capableweb 4y agoAll the countries I've lived in during my life (4) have had various types of "boxes" on the street where you can dump clothes, which subsequently gets donated to various organizations that handles giving clothes to people in need. Since I've found this in every country I've lived, I thought this was ubiquitous in the modern world. Am I maybe blinded by my experience here?
- superchroma 4y agoIn my country, those boxes go to discount stores operated by these charities which really aren't that cheap. A lot gets discarded, I've heard, because it's not presentable for purchasing. It's a bit sad, hopefully yours are better.
- zerocrates 4y agoThe article here describes Goodwill's operation in the US, where better-quality items are sold in the stores, lesser at outlet, and eventually things are bundled up and sold in bulk, as scraps, and for other uses like that. The idea is to just maximize the monetary value of the donations and then turn around and spend that money on their actual charitable mission. It removes some of the "romance" of donating items, but as long as you support the mission, I struggle to say it's the wrong move. Of course there are negative effects as well, like the eventual dumping of items on poor countries and the effects on domestic markets for clothing in those places... but at the scale the West buys and discards clothes, there's really no perfect answers.
- TedDoesntTalk 4y ago> It removes some of the "romance" of donating items I mean, what did you expect? Honest question: what romantic views did you have about donating used clothes (or anything) to Goodwill? Did you think they handed them out for free at the local soup kitchen for the homeless?
- tedunangst 4y agoI do think people have the idea that they donate a tie to charity, they give it to a homeless man, who wears it to an interview, and lands a job as a bank teller.
- pestatije 4y agoThese shops are having a hard time selecting whats sell-able. People dump everything there thinking it is waste.
- Apreche 4y agoThere are many such boxes around here. Almost all of them are operated by for-profit cults.
- Scoundreller 4y agoI knew the Canadian Diabetes Association was a front for big insulin, and this confirms it!
- logifail 4y ago> All the countries I've lived in during my life (4) have had various types of "boxes" on the street where you can dump clothes, which subsequently gets donated to various organizations that handles giving clothes to people in need [..] Q1: To which people? Q2: As a 'donor', how is one supposed to be able to determine what actually happens after your throw your clothes in the box?
- smileysteve 4y agoWhen helping hurts, the best recycling of old fabrics to avoid economic reprecussions is probably for insulation or us dollars. Most of the big name donation centers (GoodWill) will have this setup for their waste product.
- smileysteve 4y agoTo which people? In best cases, to domestic thrift stores, which are hoping to create retail jobs for people (often a bridge job to get training, a work history) with customers including homeless, thrift treasure seekers, costume shoppers, college students, near poverty, in poverty, makers, reusers and more. Middle case, they get shredded into insulation or dollar bills. Worse case, they flood Africa as finished textiles obliterating the local market.
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y agoIt's not a literal black box. It has information on it, maybe a website, where you can go research what happens in great detail. Including what clothes are accepted, what the minimum conditions must be, whether they are sold in thrift stores or donated, and to who, etc.
- pessimizer 4y agoThey don't want your old clothes, they want your semi-fresh ones.
- sct202 4y agoIf they're so old they've crossed the line to vintage, they are in demand again.
- notacoward 4y agoOP addresses this. Very little of what goes into those boxes gets sold as-is. Some more gets sold as rags, chopped up for insulation and pillows etc. Most ends up in landfills. The boxes are convenient, but don't really solve the waste problem. They just change who profits from the very small residual value in old clothes, and often not for the better. You're better off selling the very few best pieces (e.g. still-fashionable dress clothes in near mint condition) locally and donating the proceeds to a real charity. The rest will go in the trash anyway so might as well skip the middleman and put it there yourself.
- xsmasher 4y agoThere are many clothing drop-boxes near me (SF bay area). They make claims to charity; they sell the clothing and give 10% of the proceeds to a charity. The other 90% goes to the company that owns the box.
- kenned3 4y agoI have to question those large "boxes" and their true motives. Homeless People have literally DIED trying to get things out of the bins. If the goal is to get the clothing to those who need it, why build the bins in such a way that removal is impossible? https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/cambridge-death-donation-bin-1.4964381 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/cambridge-... "At least seven Canadians have died after getting stuck in clothing donation bins, and the latest fatality has prompted an advocate to call for the "death traps" to be immediately fixed or removed." It seems the true goal is to accept donations (free) and then turn around and sell the clothing? So you build bins in a way that they are "one-way" doors, and only those with keys can remove the goods?
- staticman2 4y agoWouldn't the goal of the bin be to stop someone from selling the items in the bin?
- kenned3 4y agoHow do you know they intended to sell them? Read the article, they were homeless.. i'd guess they were looking for something to stay warm in an uncomfortable Canadian winter? I thought the "goal" of the bin was go put used clothing in the hands of those who need it?
- staticman2 4y agoWhat I meant is, from the point of view of the creator of the bin, locking the bin prevents a criminal from taking all the donations meant for homeless people. If the charity leaves it unlocked they have no control over whether donations go to somebody who needs charity.
- loeg 4y agoYeah, we have dumpsters where I've lived, too.
- superchroma 4y agoI presume polyester or blends could be disposed of via pyrolysis and converted back into oil. Or simply burned for energy. Interestingly, H&M has collected 140,000 tonnes of textiles through an in-store recycling program so far, and they upcycle but also work with a company called Renewcell to generate new fibers from cotton waste. I'm not sure what they do with the rest of the bulk textile but I presume it's burned or maybe just goes to landfill.
- tuatoru 4y agoSometimes discarded cotton clothing goes to making rag paper[1], which is a good quality paper for archival and such. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_paper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_paper
- WillAdams 4y agoI wear old clothes when doing yard work or woodworking or metalworking --- by the time I'm done, they're only suited to be cut up for rags, and I have a jar which I clip the buttons into --- if a zipper is YKK and still in good condition I'll cut around it in case I need to replace a zipper on something. I've tried to convince my wife to take up quilting, but she has zero interest, and I don't have the time.
- jvanderbot 4y agoNice clothes -> Gym clothes / shop clothes -> sleepwear -> rags (can spend years here) -> trash I've got trashbags full of old sheets and t-shirts, and they're so useful for random straining, cleanup, covering tools, degreasing, painting, etc.
- InitialLastName 4y agoThis exactly (although I tend not to sleep in former shop clothes, too much grease in my shop). Nothing beats a t-shirt for cleaning a bicycle chain, though (and they make perfectly good handkerchiefs too).
- viburnum 4y agoClothes are generally difficult to quilt with because the fabric stretches too much.
- flappyeagle 4y agoWoven fabrics like those on dress shirts should be ok
- nerb 4y agoyou could take up quilting yourself
- kaybe 4y agoI'm honestly not sure it is a good idea to use really old clothes for quilting. The fabric ages and becomes thinner and thinner, and a quilt is a lot of work. Do you want to produce a quilt out of already weak material?
- partiallypro 4y agoThere are some companies that will give you store credits to have your clothes "respun." That to me seems like the best thing.
- dirtyid 4y agoAI quilt making vending machine. I don't know what I would do with all the quilts, But I like the idea that all my well worn, too shitty to donate fabrics are neatly folded somewhere. Maybe bed sheets as well?
- Overtonwindow 4y agoA Lot of clothing donation bins are for profit companies that sell the clothing for furniture stuffing. Check out “Clothing Poverty” about the horrible problem the clothing donation industry has been. https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/clothing-poverty-the-hidden-world-of-fast-fashion-and-second-hand-clothes_andrew-brooks/9469628/item/9227854/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwrs2XBhDjARIsAHVymmSpXFD1waXDqK-WEgFNQmcOQbAbYe8pcvbA5pD3ZHXzmKLgS8ueKcEaAq6_EALw_wcB#isbn=1783600675&idiq=9227854 https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/clothing-poverty-the-hidden-wo... Also great episode of Tiny Spark on clothing donation waste. https://nonprofitquarterly.org/clothing-poverty-andrew-brooks/ https://nonprofitquarterly.org/clothing-poverty-andrew-brook...
- lepton 4y agoIn Canada, furniture pillows always come with a New Material Only tag, indicating that recycled textiles have not been used. I assume this is regulated and has been in place since the dawn of time.
- pessimizer 4y ago> sell the clothing for furniture stuffing. What's wrong with this? Seems like perfect recycling.
- thesuitonym 4y agoI wouldn't be upset about my clothes becoming furniture stuffing, I usually wear my clothes until they're not really presentable anyway. I usually cut them up as rags, but I don't go through rags that often, so I inevitably end up throwing clothes away. Had I know that I can give them to a company that will recycle them, I'd definitely prefer that.
- Scoundreller 4y agoIf it’s presentably presented (ie: a nice stack of mostly squares without buttons/zippers), I’d think any random car/bike/moto mechanic shop would gladly take them off your hands.
- racl101 4y agoAs a guy who has always worn hand-me-downs in child hood and teenage years I wear my clothes out until they are no longer wearable. So I just convert them into rags or toss them in the trash once they have too many tears.
- acomjean 4y agoOn a construction site I was working on, the box of "recycled rags" was just old t-shirts cut up. they're still doing it: https://nowlinens.com/collections/tshirt-rags/products/pro-clean-basics-recycled-white-t-shirt-rags?variant=37823002149035 https://nowlinens.com/collections/tshirt-rags/products/pro-c...
- amelius 4y agoThere's only one written review and it says: > I ordered white tee shirt rags and that was probably the only thing that wasn't in the bag. It had sweatshirts shirts with collars just mostly trash I could have picked up at a yard sale for a couple bucks .
- kibwen 4y agoSame here. Nice clothes get worn until they get visibly tattered or stained, then they become pajamas or clothes for doing dirty work, then finally they turn into rags.
- thomasahle 4y agoAlong those lines, I also like to have my clothes repaired when they get the first tear or two. That usually adds a couple of years to their lives, and it costs way less money and effort than buying new clothes. (Perhaps depending on how much you usually pay for your clothes.)
- racl101 4y agoYeah me too. I got a few jogging pants that I've patched up a few times. Nothing wrong with them except for the hole in the crotch.
- dvh 4y agoI use them as fishing clothes.
- trgn 4y ago> There is simply no easy, universal guidance for the most Earth-friendly or hassle-free or socially good way for you to dispose of your old clothes But there is. In fact, the answer is right in the setup of the article. > For much of American history [...] most of the population considered the endless accumulation of material goods unseemly, Basically, don't buy so many clothes to begin with. And then you don't have to dispose them. This happens all the time. Looking for a solution to a problem, when the problem shouldn't really even arise in the first place. It's a great slogan, `reduce, reuse, recycle`, but we tend to forget the first two are the most important ones.
- DigitallyFidget 4y agoEventually you will have to dispose of old clothes as they start to get holes, tear, break seams, and just generally fall apart. I still have shirts from over 15 years ago. I buy new clothes maybe once or twice a year at most. When it becomes too swiss-cheesed to wear in public anymore, I just use it as a rag/drying towel. I just recently bought all new socks and retired all the old ones to rags. When the rags are so oil stained, torn up, and useless, then I'll finally retire them to the trash. I keep old ruined pants for patch material, too, since my pants are pretty much all the same few colours. Sewing is easy, you don't have to be good at it, if you can manage to get the thread through the needle eye and tie a secure knot, you've already done the hardest part of sewing. The rest is just pushing the needle back and forth through the material. Doesn't matter how sloppy the stitching looks, if it holds, it's good. Nobody is going to lean over, inspect it, and say, "You, sir, sew like an idiot." It really requires zero skill, just buy a cheap sewing kit that comes with thread and needles, and give it a go. Nylon thread is the best, IMO, because you can use a lighter to melt the thread into the fabric and then not have to worry about having a secure start and end knot that won't come loose.
- pwinnski 4y ago100% agree on reducing! Still, are you suggesting that clothes should be kept forever? Because whether you're talking about someone who discards entire wardrobes at the end of every season, or someone who rotates the same very-few items until they no longer fit, at some point people still need to do something with old clothes.
- rglover 4y agoA bit of a tangent, but... I'm actually quite excited by the implications of the changing economic outlook for the world. Companies are finally catching up with the reality that infinite growth and unending production are not sustainable business models (and a great way to kill your brand via diminishing returns). We might actually get to see a return to quality thinking (in the Juran/Deming sense) where things are actually made to last, not just be discarded and replaced with something new every X days/months/years. Imagine a world/environment where people weren't hopped up on perpetual growth, could actually focus and iterate on an idea for a long(er) time, and a chart going sideways for a quarter or two wasn't coupled with an ulcer. Not only would living conditions improve for a lot of people, quality of life would skyrocket (both material and psychological/emotional).
- Scoundreller 4y agoI never really understand these articles and many of their points. The claim gets made that exporting the clothes to developing nations is bad, but it’s usually products made for developing nations that can be low quality from the factory gate. Claims are often made that 2nd hand clothing disrupts a local clothing industry, but in reality, it’s going to be difficult to compete with global manufacturing. Clothing isn’t a strategic industry imo. And cotton is a plant product, nothing wrong with burning or composting it. Clothing probably ranks as one of the most re-used consumer “products”, both by the initial buyer and subsequent buyers. A real issue is crude oil based fabrics and blends and their recyclability and/or emissions when incinerated. For me, old stuff becomes rags, which I’d otherwise have to buy “new”.
- 1970-01-01 4y ago>I never really understand these articles and many of their points. I also find theatlantic.com long-winded and pointless.
- notahacker 4y agoIt does seem like the author got asked to shoehorn as many different potential downsides of doing fairly sensible things as possible into an article If items are sufficient quality to be resellable to remote US buyers on Depop but mailing them out individually is too much work, you really, really don't have to worry that if donated in bulk to a network of charity shops they're all going straight to African landfill...
- failrate 4y agoHand me downs Quilts Work rags "Rope" Rugs Stuffing Insulation Straining Tinder
- hasperdi 4y agoA lot of clothes, including the donated ones end up in landfills like this https://youtu.be/MHnDqelUh-4?t=90 https://youtu.be/MHnDqelUh-4?t=90 It's an abomination the fashion industry doesn't get any blame.
- donatj 4y agoIs this a problem everyone has? This is a problem my wife has, and a cause of arguments amongst us. I wear clothes until I get a hole in it. Classically this would be when I would throw it out. I thought this was a waste of money and I have learned to darn (from an HN post no less) - I do not buy clothes until there I a serious gap in my collection, and even then it's usually because my wife has dragged me to the store.
- yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago> and I have learned to darn (from an HN post no less) Could you possibly provide a pointer? I've been meaning to learn exactly this.
- aaaaaaaaaaab 4y agoWear them?
- a1pulley 4y agoI'm willing to spend, say, 5 or 10x what one would at Uniqlo or Old Navy to buy quality garments that will last a long time and be socially acceptable in upper middle class west coast cliques—i.e., I don't need tailored suits in my world. Where do I go?
- nico 4y agoPatagonia is not 5-10x those brands, but they do promise to repair your clothes if you bring them in. So even if the quality is not necessarily much better, at least they’ll help you make your clothes last.
- dendrite9 4y agoHave they gotten better at that? I had a favorite pair of ski pants replaced instead of being repaired several years ago for a relatively minor zipper replacement. The cost of replacing a zipper is ridiculous compared to the cost of the zipper or even the pants. Probably because the pattern is not made with zipper replacement in mind. I was content to pin that pocket or add a flap and button over the zipper.
- nico 4y agoGood point. I couldn’t say, but I think most people never even consider the possibility of bringing the stuff back for repair. Hence, I guess the demand for repair work is probably very low, and they might not have good processes in place to do it. From a pure transactional perspective, it’s nice that they are essentially selling a clothing service for which you pay only once per item. But from an environmental angle, it sucks that they might not really be fulfilling their promise.
- ip26 4y agoThey have started designing their garments and sleeping bags to be more easily repairable. Especially around the zipper. It isn’t perfect but they seem to take it more seriously than any other company on the planet.
- pacija 4y agoI wear my clothes and shoes almost until they disintegrate. Some of them are more than two decades old, still good. Harder to find quality stuff that lasts nowadays, but it is possible. Wear cotton and leather, avoid plastics. But then again I an very pretty, tall and slim, wearing old worn out black stuff gives me cool punk rocker / oldschool goth look. I know not everyone can pull this off :)
- gtk40 4y agoAs someone who is often doing outdoor activities and sports in a very hot, humid area I can't find a good alternative to plastics for clothing. But they last a long time. I have a lot of synthetic workout clothing well over a decade old. I guess not nearly as long as you. :)
- gidorah 4y agoMerino wool is great for this.
- mikkergp 4y agoI think a lot of people find Merino wool not to have the same itchy discomfort of traditional wool, I am sadly not one of those people.
- krageon 4y agoPutting wool in the freezer helps with the itchyness, you could try that (assuming you own a garment that you currently don't wear because of it).
- bryceacc 4y agoin the heat, I wouldn't want thick merino wool on. and in my experience, any thin thread 100 ones don't last that long even when babied. I do like thicker ones for the winter as base layers though
- 4y ago
- tingletech 4y agoI learned how to do a so called amish knot at the Oakland Public Library last month. The materials were discarded clothes, sheets, and other cloth. As well as plastic bags and I think there was some plastic cord. It was pretty cool, I only made a small little roundish mat, but you could turn old cloths and plastic bags into little rugs with the technique pretty easily. The woman who was teaching it also noted that it didn't need any tools except for a poker you can make from a paper clip and the scissors (as opposed knitting needles or the hooks for crochet). A local art collective rocks paper scissors has a fiber arts thing once a month in the library, and they bring in sewing machines that anyone can use if you need to fix up your clothes or put together a pattern.
- tingletech 4y agowhy not fix or recycle old clothes?
- rootusrootus 4y agoIf they are unserviceable I throw them in the trash. If they are serviceable, but for some reason no longer useful to me (don't fit, whatever), I donate them to the local men's shelter.
- krnlpnc 4y agoKeep old shirts and make a blanket out of them
- phkahler 4y agoFor cotton, wouldn't it be fine to dump them in the ocean?
- LightG 4y agoWear them down, then we make mops/rags to clean the house with them!
- liamgriffiths 4y agoOne option is to sell them on a marketplace like https://www.grailed.com https://www.grailed.com or even just buy your clothes there in the first place to reduce buying brand new. Its cheaper and honestly you might become a bit more stylish in the process. For garments you can't sell like underwear you could also look into recycling them through places like https://knickey.com/pages/recycle https://knickey.com/pages/recycle
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 4y ago"The garment industry has a vested interest in ensuring that the rest of us think of clothing as disposable, or at least mutable. This is especially true of fast-fashion companies, but it's also true for luxury brands, even if they market their products with the promise that they'll last a lifetime." Responsible journalism. +1 Currently trying out some "guaranteed for life" hiking socks made in Vermont. No doubt some HN readers will guess the brand. Feeling like maybe I will come to regret it later as they are so densely woven that they neither stretch nor breathe as much as non-guaranteed socks and they take a longer time to dry. But imagine a sock company (hosiery) that sells socks as a "lifetime subscription" that can be fully paid-up at time of purchase and recycles old socks that people send them. This is far better than "fast fashion". Honestly I have no idea if this company recycles old socks, if that is even possible, or if it truly honours the "lifetime guarantee", but their popularity has gotten me thinking.
- aaron695 4y ago
- carapace 4y agoGive 'em to the rag'n'bone man. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rag_and_bone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rag_and_bone
- mikewarot 4y agoYou sell them to the rag and bone man, like our great-grandparents did.
- mikewarot 4y agoReference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rag-and-bone_man https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rag-and-bone_man
- fargle 4y agoBoy that's a first-world problem if I've ever heard of one. Even so, I live in a 1st world nation and both the wife and I buy sturdy functional clothing and, guess what?, it lasts for many years. We use it till it's fit for rags. Then we use the rags. If/when we outgrow it but it's still serviceable it goes to rummage sale or goodwill. Plenty of folks will definitely buy good shoes, jeans, etc. at goodwill - if serviceable these are not going to pollute 3rd world countries and it really helps people. Hell, we shop for good jeans at goodwill, etc. too. If you are having the ethical dilemma about where to donate your worn-once, too cheap, dry-clean-only but super-chic outfits when your closet is overflowing, you are definitely doing it wrong in at least 6 ways. Spoiler alert: the problem is not the goodwill company, the media, or the fashion industry.
- terryneo3 4y agoIn my opinion, the best way to dispose of Old cloth is to either sell it to the second hand market or give it to someone else. It's a waste to just throw away old clothes. Now second-hand goods trading is actually more popular than before, especially during the epidemic period, supply chain crisis, more and more people are willing to buy second-hand goods and clothes. Based on a report from CouponBirds, sales in the used market are expected to reach $54 billion in 2022, up more than 50% from $35 billion in 2021. The US second-hand market is set to double to $82 billion by 2026, 16 times faster than the overall fashion retail market. Selling to second-hand dealers and donating, this is the best way I can think of to dispose of old clothes.
- theshrike79 4y agoReduce, Reuse, Recycle. I currently own 3 merino T-shirts, one merino hoodie, a few pairs of bamboo and merino underwear, two identical pairs of jeans and a bunch of identical socks. The hoodie is a bit over 5 years old and still in daily use. The jeans are about the same age and I wear them on alternate weeks and don't wash them unless it's necessary. The socks I throw away as soon as they wear through (just single socks, they're all the same). When I run out of socks for my regular wash cycle, I throw them all away and buy a 7-12 pack of new identical ones.
- dmuptonull 4y ago
- dmuptonull 4y ago
- Ahmedb 4y agoIn my country we give them to people with lesser means on the streets. When the winter season gets close some people will start collecting clothes to bring them to people living in the mountains