One of my three younger sisters was spring cleaning a couple of closets recently, and after sorting through things she wound up donating most of her clothes to a local church.
But there was a small pile of clothes that looked ripe for the dump. Karmically, (not sure if that’s a word), she didn’t want to deposit these pre-loved clothes into the trash bin –so she did what sisters do — asked the older one for advice.
Both Good Will and The Salvation Army are willing to take on even the threadbare threads — they send them to “rag sorters” who make very good use of the material.
Here are a few other tips for recycling those beloved threads:
- Patagonia has a smart system for recycling their clothes or Polartec wear through Patagonia’s Common Threads Garment Recycling Program
- NYC residents looking to donate wearable clothes can contact WearableClothes.com, a service that puts still-good garments to good use
- Related: swap-O-rama, freecycle, clothingswap, pdxswap, u-exchange and swishing for keeping pre-loved clothing on our bodies rather than in landfills.
Take note: Textiles make up about 4 percent of the weight and 8 percent of the volume of all municipal solid waste in the US — more info @ Institute for Self Reliance and @ Council for Textile Recycling.
Don’t be lazy, you can do it. How do you keep your used garments out of the landfill?
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A simpler solution perhaps is to reuse your “rags” for something else. You could turn them into cleaning or drying cloths, use them to patch other clothes, or if you are creatively inclined use them to make quilts.
Quilting’s a great idea, for small-patterned prints especially — here’s the URL for the American Quilter’s Society: http://www.americanquilter.com/
As I’ve never tried using wool as a cleaning or drying cloth, I’m not sure about that – ever tried it?
Save those buttons and zippers! Kids are always losing buttons, a set from your button jar looks nicer than a non-matching replacement.
What, no kids? Do something artistic.
Chances are your older zippers work better than the ones they make today.
Belt loop/sa from well made jeans have lots of uses, as well.
Mary – I love buttons, I’ll show you my collection some day:)
this is what I did with discarded clothes from my closets
http://www.oasisoriginals.net/recycled.html#shoppingbags
right down to using the pockets inside and out.
wow
I am starting a business where I take your old clothes or clothes from someone that has passed and turn them into quilts or other useful gifts. Such as a pet bed slipcover, potholders, table runners, placemats, coasters, scissor holder, the list goes on. Unfortunately, my website is not up yet, but you can contact me if you are interested.
I have been donating most of mine. Although some clothes are just to bad to donate so i keep them a make new clothes out of them. This way i dont have to buy even more clothes when i lose all my weight (over 150 lbs dropped so far) people think im weird because im green and when they find out im a guy that can sew they freak out. So i just say to them “hey who is the guy in the cool threads with the girls on his arms oh yeah its me.”