The textiles industry stands as one of the largest in the entire world, and billions of garments are consumed in the United States and abroad every year, ranging from shirts and pants to dresses, shoes, gloves, hats, and coats. The United States is a voracious consumer and a generous producer of textiles, but the bad news is that old clothes do not always end up being recycled or donated to those in need after their owners are done with them. Clothing donations are plentiful, but all the same, a lot of clothes end up going in landfills where they don’t do anyone any good, so Americans are encouraged to help curb rates of clothes waste and instead visit charity pick up sites and veteran charities to help families in need and donate clothing. Often, these needy families have children, and children in need clothing can help these youngsters during their most vulnerable times. Children in need clothing can easily be donated by households who have toddlers, children, or young adolescents in them, and donating children in need clothing can do a lot of good for less fortunate families. The question “where can I donate clothes?” can be answered online, and if someone wonders how to donate, the answers are simple for that, too.
Donations VS Waste
Donating clothes to families in need, such as children in need clothing, is nearly always considered the right thing to do, and this can act not only as a humanitarian effort, but it can also help reduce rates of clothes being thrown away into landfills. How much clothing is lost today when it could be donated instead? Today, the average American throws away 82 pounds total of textile waste every single year, and this can add up fast. In fact, the textiles industry today has a recovery rate of 15% or so, where 15% of unwanted clothes are donated to charity or recycling efforts while another 10.5 million tons of it ends up in landfills. With a recovery rate of only 15%, the textile industry has one of the worst recovery rates of any reusable material. In 2011, the recovery rate was close to that average, at 15.3%.
The good news is that a strong charitable spirit already exists among the American people, and this spirit can simply be stoked so that more donations are given every year, such as children in need clothing, and landfills won’t get so much clothing thrown into them. Today, it is believed that 95.4% of all Americans take part in charitable giving on one level or another, and many millions of pounds of clothes are indeed given to families in need and dropped off at donation pick up sites. If these impressive numbers can be bolstered further, this humanitarian effort can reach new heights.
Make the Donation
It is never too late to decide to donate old clothing, and many donation pick up sites are being operated every day of the year. An American household today can easily take part in this humanitarian effort with a few easy steps, and as a bonus, this can help streamline the family’s wardrobe and may even result in tax credit if enough clothes are donated.
First, a charitable family can gather all clothes from across the entire house or apartment and assemble them into a pile to form a complete inventory, and this makes it clear how much is really owned. Shoes, shirts, coats, jeans, gloves, hats, and everything else should be included. Now, the family members can carefully pick through this pile and decide what they really want to keep, vs what is assigned for charity. Clothes that are worn out, the wrong size, or redundant with better clothe can be packed up in bags or boxes for donation purposes, and all the clothes assigned for charity can be taken to one’s nearest charity pick up site and delivered. The person may follow any additional directions from volunteers there, and the donation effort is now complete. As a bonus, this means that the family has cleared up a lot of room in their closets and dressers since their unwanted clothes are cleared out, and this helps prevent stressful clutter in the home.