Thursday, March 28, 2024

Here’s What Happens to the Clothes You Donate to Goodwill

Goodwill store
Parker, Colorado, USA – July 8, 2014: Goodwill retail store and donation center serves customers and awaits donors at the back of the store.

*Ever wonder what happens to the clothes you donate to your local Goodwill or the Salvation Army?

According to a 2018 Nylon report, “less than 20 percent of clothing donations sent to charities are actually resold at those charities,” the outlet writes, adding that “the other 80 percent is sent to textile recyclers who then determine the next cycle of the garment’s life.”

A majority of the donations are “exported and sold in developing countries,” while any leftovers “get recycled into rags and household insulation,” per the report. 

“There are just far more unwanted clothes in the United States than there is demand,” said Elizabeth Cline, author of “Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost Of Fast Fashion.” 

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“Charities receive far, far more unwanted clothing donation than they could ever possibly sell in their thrift stores, so they have relationships with other textile sorting and exporting companies who can find a place to sell those clothes and find another market for them to go,” Cline added. 

Per the report: “The U.S. sends away over a billion pounds of used clothing per year, and a lot of those excess textiles are sent to East African countries like Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda, each of which has received so much that some have proposed banning imported used clothing.”

“I think the main thing that I disagree with is the secondhand industry in the United States bullying East African countries into importing our old clothes,” said Cline. “If these countries decide that it would be better for their economy to not import this stuff, I feel like the United States should respect that.” 

She continued, “I think that people need to come around to being comfortable with the idea that someone, somewhere is making a profit off unwanted clothes. They’re providing us with a service. They’re making this stuff disappear.”

Clothing donations to charities and thrift stores have reprotedly doubled over the past 15 years. 

“I’ve received so many heirlooms from my grandma and my mom that have been passed down to me, because the clothes were built with care and quality and with longevity in mind,” said Kestrel Jenkins, founder and producer of the Conscious Chatter podcast, per the report. “So just tossing that in the garbage was a lot less likely because you had an emotional connection to it.”

“We don’t value our clothing anymore,” Jenkins declares. “Fast fashion has helped us build up a more intense addiction to buying clothing and, at the same time, it’s helped us really elevate the throwaway culture.” 

“We have to confront the fact that we Americans buy far, far more clothing than any other people on the planet and, as a result, we have more unwanted clothing than anywhere else on Earth,” Cline said. “I don’t think people need to be focusing on the good or bad way to donate, I think that the bigger issue is keeping unwanted clothes out of landfills and, in an ideal world, people thinking about the issue of textile waste when they’re shopping.”

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