Recycling Clothes: Why You Should Be Doing It & Its Impact View
With information at our fingertips, more and more people are becoming educated and making more eco-friendly choices in their everyday lives. By now, most people are aware of the impact recycling items like plastic bottles and aluminum cans can have on the environment…but what about the clothes you wear? Have you ever wondered about that?
Recycling is important
It is common knowledge that we should not throw away paper, that we ought to turn off the water while we brush our teeth, and that it is preferable to reuse (or avoid!) plastic bags. On the other hand, the majority of people are under the impression that recycling used clothing and other textiles is not of equivalent significance. But it is.
Wait, recycling our clothes is important too?
In today's society, where information is readily available, more and more individuals are becoming educated and making eco-friendly decisions in their daily lives. Most people are now aware of the environmental impact of recycling items such as plastic bottles and aluminum cans. However, what about the clothing we buy and then discard? Have you ever considered this?
Let's start with some facts...
Approximately 85 percent of unwanted clothing is thrown away and ends up in landfills.
Clothing production frequently involves environmentally hazardous practices, such as the production of dyes and coatings.
Synthetic fibers, such as lycra or spandex, can be especially harmful to the environment because they involve the extraction and processing of petroleum.
To make one cotton t-shirt, 2700 liters (or 713 gallons) of water are required. That equates to 24 bathtubs full of water or 2.5 years of drinking water.
One cotton t-shirt requires 33 pounds of carbon dioxide to produce. That is roughly equivalent to driving a car 30 miles.
These figures are staggering, but the good news is that with recycling, we can all take simple steps in our daily lives to make a significant difference in our planet's future and leave the world a better place for future generations.
Source: Wooley Green & Goodfair
So...What can I do?
The simple solution is to begin recycling your clothing and shoes. There are some frightening statistics out there, and recycling your textiles will have a significant, positive impact on those statistics. Recycling your clothes not only saves water but also contributes to lowering your carbon footprint.
Most people are unaware that their unwanted clothes and shoes, even if ripped or stained, have value. For example, worn-out shoe soles could be ground down and used on a recycled rubber playground surface, and ripped shirts could be turned into wipers or even building insulation. There are numerous outlets and routes available to extend the lives of these items.
How does Helpsy help?
We are the largest textile collection company in the Northeast United States. Unlike most used brands, we have an environmental goal: to keep clothes out of landfills. We collected 25 million pounds of clothing in just the last year.
The following is the impact of the clothes we collected in 2021:
CO₂ emissions of 320 million pounds
Water in the amount of 20 billion gallons
The electricity consumption of 10,000 American households
We are proud to be a Public Benefit Corporation and a Certified B Corporation with a focus on the environment. We believe that the tragedy of clothing being discarded in landfills and incinerators must end.
To combat this, we collaborate with large and small partners to place clothing collection containers, schedule collection drives, engage with cities, manage unwanted inventories, and raise awareness about the significance of clothing recycling.
Please visit helpsy.co for information on how to participate in any of the ways we can collect your clothing and to learn more about our recycling efforts. You will also find a comprehensive list of everything we collect on this page.
