As one may expect, the textiles industry is one of the biggest in the world today, and the United States is one of the biggest markets and producers of clothes and accessories. Every year, many shirts and pants, dresses, coats, gloves, hats, shoes, and more are produced and consumed by Americans, and many families have an extensive wardrobe. The problem is when old clothes are simply thrown away rather than delivered to clothing donation locations for charity purposes, and charity donations, while impressive today, could always increase, and helping military families or families in need. Veterans clothing donations do not take a break; at any time of day, any day of the week, a person can visit clothing donation locations and deliver the old clothes that they do not want anymore, and local donation pick ups of old shoes, shirts, gloves, and more is not only humanitarian, but it also helps curb the amount of old clothes that are taking up space in landfills. Knowing where to find clothing donation locations can be easy, and any family can follow a simple process to donate clothing and do some good.
Donations VS Waste
Today in the United States, some old, unwanted clothes are recycled, and others are thrown away as trash, while the rest are actually taken to clothing donation locations for those in need. How often do clothes end up in one of these three routes? Americans choose to recycle or donate only about 15% of their old and used clothes, meaning that the rest, which totals up to nearly 10.5 million tons every year, end up in landfills, which means that the textiles industry has one of the worst recycle rates for any reusable materials. That is not good, since trash serves no purpose to anyone. What if clothes are recycled? Many Americans recycle their unwanted clothes, and they usually end up serving industrial purposes, such as being used as industrial rags or being shredded up to form furniture stuffing or similar roles. At least those clothes are not being sent to landfills, but many would argue that the best use for old clothes is to drop them off at clothing donation locations for those in need.
The good news is that Americans are already charitable, and this giving spirit can easily be boosted to new heights. Currently, nearly 95.4% of all Americans take part in charitable giving of some kind or other, and this sometimes includes clothes. A few years ago in 2011, for example, nearly two million tons of clothes were recycled or given to charity in the United States, and that figure may be even higher now. What is more, Americans themselves might get these old clothes, and estimates show that the average citizen buys 10 pounds of used clothes per year, such as from secondary markets, and this cuts down on levels of waste. If this existing charitable spirit can be pushed further, even more clothes will end up with those who need them, and there will be a lot less waste.
Make the Donation
It is always the right time for an average American household to decide to give to charity, and simple and practical methods exist to figure out what to donate and how to get these old clothes to clothing donation locations. One suggested strategy is the following. A household’s members can gather all clothing and accessories that they own from all across the house and assemble all of it into a single, massive pile, or inventory, on the floor. This allows the family members to take full stock of what they own, and many may be surprised by how big this pile ends up being. Now, the family members can pick and sort through this pile and carefully decide what they really want to keep, and what gets set aside for donations. Clothes that are worn out, out of fashion, the wrong size, or redundant with better clothes can be put into bags or boxes for donations, and once all this is done, the remaining clothes can be put back in closets and dressers, and now all the clothes designated for charity are sorted out. They can be dropped off at a nearby charity site at will.