Many of us are guilty of filling up a bin bag of clothes when our wardrobe gets a bit too full, or we become bored of all of our old, tired-looking items of clothing, before throwing them all away with the household rubbish. Although this obviously achieves the additional space that we are looking to create, it isn’t exactly the most environmentally friendly way of disposing of them.
With tonnes and tonnes of clothing filling precious landfill space each year, now is the time to start recycling old clothes. Raising awareness of the benefits of doing this is one way to persuade people to change their habits – so what exactly are the positives to recycling your old clothes?
Stops them going into landfill sites
As we’ve already touched on, the amount of landfill space being used by old clothing garments is still far too large. With space for rubbish quickly running out, more countryside has to be torn up in order to dispose of household waste. With so many options for recycling available for those looking to get rid of their old clothes, there really is no excuse for not choosing the option.
Certain synthetic fibres also do not decompose, which mean they remain in the ground for years and years. Similarly, clothes made from wool will decompose slowly, though release harmful methane toxins which destroy the land they are buried in.
Helps the environment
Then, we need to consider the impact on the environment when it comes to manufacturing the clothing in the first place. The growing of cotton actually requires the use of some harmful pesticides to be used on the land, while other rare resources such as petroleum are used to make fabrics. What also should be considered are the greenhouse gases and pollution caused during the manufacturing process, as well as the shipping and delivery of the clothing across the world.
If more people were to recycle clothing, the purchasing needs of others would be reduced which would help to minimise all of these environmental impacts.
You could make some spare cash
From a more selfish point of view, you can actually make some money from clothing recycling. If you sell to somewhere which is going to reuse the materials, you aren’t going to make more than a bit of spare cash, though this could come in handy and could mount up substantially if you are the kind of person which changes their clothes regularly. In other instances, certain novelty, collectable or brand name items of clothing can make you a decent return if sold on the right kind of websites.
Can be used by others
Finally, reused clothes can go to those who cannot afford to buy similar garments in a brand new condition. This goes from all ends of the spectrum – there are those who are literally just bored of a piece of clothing, though when it’sin good condition it could be accepted by a fashion store which sells fashionable garments at knockdown prices. Then there may be those who literally cannot afford to cloth themselves – taking your old items to a charity store which helps the needy may help to provide clothes to those who need them the most.
