So you just spent the weekend cleaning out all your closets. You have four giant black garbage bags of clothes to get rid of. What is the best way to do that? Think before you make that decision, as it is estimated that textiles make up more than 5.2% of our landfills. Disposing incorrectly of your unnecessary or unwanted clothing, towels, sheets, curtains, rugs or pillows can directly impact our environment.

Tips for Recycling or Reusing Your Textile Items

  • You should start with 3 piles: Good, fair and poor condition items.
  • Good and fair condition items can be donated to thrift stores or charity and will benefit the consumer, as well as those charities the store represents. And you may get a tax write off for the donation.
  • Another idea is to organize a clothes swap. Gather friends of your same size and swap clothes! This way everyone wins because who doesn’t like new (to you) clothes!
  • One of the newest ideas to reusing clothes is the online sales website. There are many choices for selling your good condition used clothing. And you can make some money in the process! ThredUP or Poshmark are great options.
  • If you don’t feel like bothering with online sales, go to an old-fashioned brick and mortar consignment store and let them do the sales work for you.
  • Poor condition clothing should be recycled. Some clothing stores contain recycling bins or you can drop off your textiles to a recycling center. Once processed, the recycled material can be used for mattresses, car insulation, roofing felts, loudspeaker cones, panel linings furniture padding and more.

Inspire others to reuse or recycle their old clothing and textiles! Post a photo of your efforts to FaceBook or Twitter using #RecyleGuide and keep our landfills free of these items!

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