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Fascinating article about the hidden issues of donating clothes

catgirl

Veteran

http://www.businessoffashion.c.....-417134081

For the link love post as well as discussion here. Some troubling concerns for sure, especially about fast fashion and its impact.

General

27 replies

Latest reply was from judy

Peri

Veteran

A long time ago I started a thread about what my friends daughters had said...that they don't want to be seen in the same outfit more than twice because of Instagram and that they buy cheap clothes with the express intent of wearing twice and dumping.

I'm still reeling from that attitude!

kkards

Veteran

And it's not just clothing, I was listening to this really interesting interview on fresh air this week about the globalization of recycling.
It really reminds us that each of us has an impact, not just on our immediate community, but also on the larger global community.

http://www.npr.org/2013/11/13/.....rd-economy

lyn*

(website)

Veteran

I can't imagine buying something to wear only once (I guess a wedding gown doesn't count) - and then tossing it.

I think that second hand clothes, though, are important. A lot of my patients shop second hand and I donate a lot of my things to a clothing bank that the hospital has for patients who do not have their own clothing for whatever reason, or it was damaged. One of the dresses I had donated made its way directly to one of my patients who was twirling rather excitedly in the hall exclaiming what a beautiful dress she had now! It would probably be professionally inappropriate for her to bring a bunch of my things for her, but while she was sick, she went and bought the strangest clothes - and donations from the staff and the community were a great way for her to find some "reasonable" clothes for her to attend apartment or job interviews.

Suz

(website)

Veteran

Krish linked to a similar article a while ago -- if I'm not mistaken it detailed which charities actually donated the clothing within communities and which sold for profit.

In Toronto there is a company that take old clothing and fashions new items out of it. So they'll cut up an old sweater or blazer and make a new garment from it. http://prelovedtoronto.blogspot.ca

Kristin L

Veteran

I wonder which organizations they're talking about. I know there's one around my area that has lots of drop boxes that are almost identical to the Goodwill ones. I didn't know that they were for profit until I stopped on day and read the small disclaimer on the side of the box.

Vildy

Veteran

I can believe how much money is in this. One of the churches where I thrift shop uses their shop income to help support their charitable projects and perhaps to help with their food pantry. They are only open 3 hours for at most 2 days a month. Some months with major holidays they skip one day and they are closed for most of the summer. I was surprised to be skimming their church bulletin and read that they made $30,000 from their store last year and this is in a small town and is not a mega church. And their merchandise prices are not high. About $2 for a sweater or blazer, $1 for a purse, $5 for coats. And several times a year they have clothing bag sales where you can fill a bag for $2. And still they made this much money.

JAileen

Veteran

I'm a member of a nonprofit. We run a thrift store to raise funds for our programs. I volunteer there regularly and see some people come in and practically vacuum up stuff for resale. Some of them send the goods to their home country and some have little shops here locally. Some of the people pretend it's for themselves or their family. Since all of our goods are donated and we set the prices, I guess I shouldn't get mad when people do that.

Anonymous

I donated a lot of my clothes when I lost weight, about 18 months ago.

In the UK, there has been a lot of publicity surrounding companies who pose as charities, dropping plastic bags through your mailbox, like legitimate charities do, in order to collect your unwanted items. Clothing and non-clothing. The difference obviously being that the businesses pocket the cash made themselves.

I took my clothes to a local charity shop, which is one of two that a local hospice have which sells used items of all kinds. The profits go to the running of the hospice.

When I gave the shop my clothes, (many, many items), I was issued a card with a donor number and I get occasional emails letting me know how much money my clothes have raised through being sold in the shop.

As I am a UK tax payer, my donations are treated like cash donations and also qualify for tax relief, meaning that whatever the charity makes on sales in the shop from my items, they can claim cash from the Government. I pay tax at the basic rate, so if someone pays £3 for an item I donated, the hospice get an extra 60p from the Government.

Does the US have a similar system?

DonnaF

Veteran

Crossdressman;

When I drop off items at Goodwill, they give me a dated and signed receipt with their tax ID number. It is up to the donor to estimate value when filing the tax return. In my area, thrift shop prices are approximately the same as fast fashion prices or maybe higher, and consignment store prices are much higher than that.

I wonder which places in the U.S. send donated clothing overseas?

ironkurtin

Veteran

There was a similar article in the US a few years back, I think in the New York Times magazine. I wish there were a way for me to send clothing direct to those in need with no middleman, but I guess everyone's got to make a living. So I keep giving to Goodwill, and hoping it goes out into the universe with good wishes somehow.

karymk

Veteran

GULP. That was a good article, thank you!

It's so true, people scour the thrift shops and then resell at flea markets, shops, online etc. I guess it's their right to create second, third and fourth markets....

I realize now that if I stuck to my Pinterest board "Simple Chic" I would have very little need to turn over my clothing. But fashion lover that I am, I wear a year or two, dump and rebuy the "updated" classics because God forbid I be out of style for even ten minutes. I look for the "filler" pieces regularly, that "something wow" that "little bit of magic."

I feel kind of ashamed, actually....

deb

Veteran

I find it interesting that there is no mention in the article of the corporate greed that pushes this cycle. Granted we are the consumers purchasing the goods but the corporations are the pushers that have devalued fashion.

Runcarla

Veteran

Really like what Dilys Williams said "fashion should be about cherishing clothes and creating an identity".

I do subscribe to a small curated wardrobe. It is hard to find nice things that fit well, and once I find a truly wonderful item, I tend to wear it into the ground. I have donated some, though. This article is a reminder to be mindful about the whole process.

E

Veteran

I think there's a difference between secondhand clothes that stay domestically based vs selling internationally. The latter is definitely a huge problem: we need to push for more regulations so that companies aren't allowed to do that and thus destroy fledging industries. One of the problems is the developing nations that are vulnerable to the flooding can't usually impose tariffs, because then the developed nations say they're violating fair trade & punish them for it (similar cycles happen in all kinds of industries, though, not just clothes.). So really the developed nations need to regulate the secondhand clothing businesses who are exporting, but unfortunately those businesses tend to have more political clout and of course more vested interest in the status quo than us concerned citizens.

The former is more complicated: I for one am incredibly grateful for a strong, easily accessible secondhand market since I can't afford retail. But at the same time, a lot of the clothes end up not reselling, because the volume of castoffs is just incredible. It's a bit breathtaking to walk into a giant thrift store and realise there are boxes and boxes more in the back, and that all of that stuff took natural resources and people's time and energy, and now it's unwanted. But I agree with Deb: ultimately, our current consumption-driven lifestyle was deliberately manufactured by corporations and advertisers. Individual choices can only make so much difference, unless the entire population boycotts something: our countries also need to embrace systemic change, driven by politicians willing to pass laws not in corporations' favour. The current emphasis on freedom of choice and individual actions and free markets lets businesses pass the buck. </soapbox>

I just finished reading a fascinating book, Waste and Want: a Social History of Trash, which had a lot of information about cast off clothes and the rag trade in the US from the eighteen century to post WWII, as well as how Goodwill and Salvation Army arose. Definitely recommend it to anyone who's curious: very readable!

annagybe

(website)

Veteran

This is not new news. I've heard about the decimation of the African textile industry a long time ago.
Also there's weird waste like pre-printing of sports teams who may win a big play-off or championship. They don't throw away the losing teams t-shirts and hats.

Jaime

(website)

Veteran

Agree with Anna that this is not new news but still disturbing. In the charity thrift shops in Israel it is well understood that many people are buying for resale. I don't want to get to the political situation but they don't need to go as far as Africa (which is not so far anyway) to do so. Then there are people like me that buy for myself and also resell some clothes to support my habit. I know the charities that these organizations raise money for and they are legitimate and very respectable. They are interested in money for their charities and rely on resellers to actually buy the stuff and encourage and help them. The rest goes to recycling. The problem, it seems to me, is the quantity of clothes in the system. The resellers that are destroying local markets, and the abundance of garbage dumps are, as the article says, are secondary offshoots of this problem.

Amy

(website)

Veteran

It's news to me! This is really disturbing.

Adelfa

Veteran

Thanks, Una. I'm doing really well with H&M right now and I feel guilty, partly because of the fast fashion aspect under discussion here, and also because my purple skinny jeans were made in Bangladesh and I'm scared of what that may mean....

SuzyQ2

Interesting book by Elisabeth Cline, Overdressed, The Shocking High Cost of Cheap Fashion. Cline writes, " By one estimate, used clothing is now the United States' number one export by volume, with the overwhelming majority sent to ports in sub-Saharan Africa. "
I live in a small town and regularly, maybe too often, drop off clothing to a couple of the local charity shops. While I have seen my items make it to the racks inside, the receiving clerk told me a lot of the donations are separated, baled up and sent to recyclers.

Marmee

Veteran

I admit that I most often take clothes that aren't consignment candidates to goodwill. However, there are other options other than donating to thrift stores. Several times I have taken household goods and women's and kids clothes to a local school for homeless kids. My husband's office just held a drive for coats and warm clothes for downtown street teens. I know that there are so many people in our community who can even afford to shop at goodwill. Donating directly to organizations which distribute clothes to those in need seems like a way to avoid clothing going to a professional middleman.

Of course this doesn't address why I am regularly donating and consigning a portion of my wardrobe.

Vildy

Veteran

I've not noticed in the comments anything about children's clothing. Also the many articles I've happened to read on the subject focus on adult clothing, sometimes showing the fashion styles of people in Africa who are buying and wearing this clothing.

In the few thrift stores I frequent, there are often teams of 3 to 5 people who come in and literally sweep half a rack of clothing into laundry baskets or boxes. Nobody really knows whether they have a store or are sending abroad, these particular groups are Spanish speaking, but their behavior can be rude and aggressive. I don't shop for childrens clothing but my friend has a large extended family network and does. The clothing is often ultra inexpensive at, say, a quarter apiece. Typically, she couldn't buy a holiday little girl's dress for her grandniece because she was physically blocked from reaching the area while a team of women scooped everything up. They had a full large trash bag of quarter priced kids shoes. I was behind them at checkout and they had almost sixty dollars of merchandise, much of it childrens. Same thing at other stores, different squads of women. On the one hand, they make it really difficult and nervewracking to focus and shop but also there is the awareness that they are supporting the charity shop far more than my friend and I and other regular shoppers ever will.

Ornella

(website)

Veteran

It's a powerful article and while no news, I think it's worth covering the subject over and over again again.

krishnidoux

Veteran

Suz, this was the original link: http://youlookfab.com/welookfa.....ld-clothes
You have a good memory!

... but the link in the thread doesn't work anymore

However, this video summarizes the situation. Please watch it, you will be even more stunned:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djKq0KGKirc

Shirley

How disturbing.

MsMary

Veteran

This really gives one pause. It really makes me want to be more selective with my purchasing so I won't generate so much clothing waste.

VenusCow

(website)

Fantastic article, particularly this paragraph,

“There is now this notion that fashion is just a commodity, and that we
are just consumers,” laments Dilys Williams, director of the Centre for
Sustainable Fashion at the London College of Fashion. “It doesn’t do
justice to us or to fashion. Fashion should be about cherishing clothes
and creating an identity, [but today it's] based on constant adrenalin
and the excitement of purchasing. There is no anticipation or dreaming.
Nothing lasts or is looked after. We each have a mini-landfill in our
closets.”

We must not let it stop us donating what we have already bought and never wear but must heed the warning about over consuming cheap, disposable fashion and change our shopping behaviour.

judy

Veteran

Grateful to be informed here about this issue…both the article and the video!