It’s Recycle Week in the UK and the fervor has hopped the pond. The theme this year is Recycling Around the Home and it provides us here at EcoGoodz the perfect platform from which to continue to educate everyone about the importance of textile recycling and reuse.

“The idea,” according to Recycle Now, the national recycling campaign for England, “is to get us all thinking about all the items we can recycle from around the home that we might not previously have thought about recycling.” …like textiles! 95% of household textiles (clothing, shoes, rugs, towels, blankets, bed sheets, plush toys, rugs, and curtains) can be reused or recycled in some way. But most people just aren’t aware of that fact and so millions of pounds of textiles are thrown away and end up in landfills across the country.

One of the easiest ways to increase your recycling efforts is by donating your used clothing, used shoes, unwanted toys and household items, bed linens, towels, rugs, curtains, and etc. rather than throwing them away. Even stained, torn, or broken items can be recycled and/or reused in some way (check with your local thrift stores or charitable institutions about donating such items). The following infographic shows what happens to the used clothing you donate (click to enlarge):

WHERE DO THEY GO? A look at what happens to your used clothing and shoes after you donate them

45% of the items donated are sold as secondhand clothing either in the US or other countries.

50% of donated clothing items are not suitable for wearing, but are still usable. These pieces are either cut into wiping rags and are used in the industrial and automotive industries (about 30% of donated items) or they are shredded and processed into a fibrous state to be used in other products such as carpet padding, home insulation, upholstery stuffing, and some other really cool products we’ll tell you about soon (this category comprises about 20% of donated items)! –Fully half of all used clothing is unsuitable for resale, yet it still has considerable value in other markets; and those markets are growing!

5% of clothing donations is unusable due to moisture damage and/or damage from chemicals.

Let’s take a closer look at some of those numbers:

The 45% of donated items that are sold as secondhand clothing: This clothing is sold one of two ways. Either it is 1) sold in the thrift store at which it was donated, or it is 2) sold wholesale as either credential clothing or mixed rags. When clothing comes in to the donation bay, the clothing is sorted and graded by quality. High quality items suitable for resale and priced and sent to the storefront. Imperfect items are sent to a warehouse where they are baled and sold as mixed rags. Sometimes, however, thrift stores and charitable organizations receive more donations than they can handle. When this happens, unopened bags of clothing are also sent to a warehouse to be baled and resold. These bales of untouched, unopened bags of clothing are referred to as ‘Credential clothing‘. Both mixed rags and credential clothing are often sold overseas to developing nations. These pieces can then be sold locally, thereby boosting the local economy while at the same time providing affordable clothing and shoes to millions of people.

EcoGoodz is a credential clothing supplier in the U.S. We send shipments of credential clothing, mixed rags, capsacks of shoes, bales of linens, and bales of soft toys (and more!) to countries all over the world, focusing on developing nations. In March 2015, in fact, we delivered 37,000 lbs of used shoes to the country of Benin, on the African continent! We understand firsthand the value of used clothing and used shoes. Just because you don’t want them doesn’t mean that someone else won’t!

The 50% of donated items that aren’t wearable are either made into wiping rags or are shredded.

Martex Fiber is one of those companies that makes good use of unwanted textiles. They take textile waste and process it into usable products using a process they call the Martex Fiber 360º Recycling Process, which, as you can see from the visual, takes waste items such as damaged clothing and fabric remnants, and processes them into yarn, fiber, and wiping rags which are purchased by industrial entities as well as innovators such as Tapegear, Jinja, Llama Lo/Miller Waste Mills, Looptworks, Patagonia, and Bonded Logic (just to name a few).

The Tapegear Shred line of products is another perfect example of textile waste being re-imagined. Shred is a line of tech cases made entirely from recycled textile waste derived from old, unwanted clothes and household fabrics.

Jinja is a Portuguese company which utilizes textile waste to make its remarkable products. Each are hand crafted and made from 100% textile waste. They make plates, bowls, decorative storage baskets, placemats and trivets. They can also collaborate with you on custom orders!

Llama Lo creates beautiful, heirloom quality wool blankets using 50% recycled wool. They are a subsidiary of Miller Waste Mills, a textile and fiber processing plant which provides recycled fibers for use in spill absorption, oil filtration, metal polishing, and wiping/stain application.

Looptworks rescues high-quality material left over from other manufacturers and upcycles them into clothing and other products. Because of their sustainable sourcing practices, their products are of limited quantity. And each comes with a lifetime guarantee!

Patagonia has been making clothing from recycled soda bottles for more than twenty years. From their website:

“We began making recycled polyester from plastic soda bottles in 1993–the first outdoor clothing manufacturer to transform trash into fleece. It was a positive step toward a more sustainable system–one that uses fewer resources, discards less and better protects people’s health.

Today, we recycle used soda bottles, unusable manufacturing waste and worn-out garments (including our own) into polyester fibers to produce clothing. And we offer recycled polyester in a lot more garments, including Capilene baselayers, shell jackets, board shorts and fleece.”

UltraTouch Denim Insulation by Bonded Logic is made from 80% post-consumer recycled natural fibers (aka denim jeans). Remember those jeans you donated last year? They could be insulating someone’s home right now!

Featured here is only a sampling of companies across the globe using innovation and ingenuity to take advantage of unwanted textiles and used clothing. There are many, many more. As Recycling Week continues, our hope is that you’ll not only take the time to assess your own household–where you can make improvements in your recycling efforts–but also to consider supporting these companies whose mission it is to keep usable textiles out of landfills.

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ABOUT US

EcoGoodz is an established used goods wholesaler located in the Pacific Northwestern United States. We are dedicated to providing quality goods at affordable prices worldwide.

We purchase used goods (including credential clothing, mixed rags, used shoes, soft toys, hard toys, bulk linens, and more), customer returns, and overstock merchandise from multiple sources, including thrift stores and Fortune 500 companies. We then resell these goods at deeply discounted rates to wholesalers and retailers across the globe with an emphasis on developing nations.

To inquire about any of our products, you are welcome to contact us through our main website ecogoodz.com. We look forward to hearing from you.