Unraveling the challenge of textile waste
Our planet is overrun with clothing, and a lot of it is wasted.
Globally, 92 million tons of clothing end up in landfills every year. That’s the same as a full garbage truck being dumped every single second. In the US alone, about 11 million tons of clothing go to the landfill annually. That’s about 81.5 pounds per person per year or 2,150 pieces per second.
Most textiles that end up in landfills could stay useful for many years, but how can you be sure what to do with them? Does last year’s winter coat go to the same place as a holey sock or the dog’s soiled bed?
The concept of next highest use is helpful in answering these questions. It means choosing the option that will keep each item out of landfills the longest. Commonly, the hierarchy looks like this:
Reusing is the highest use of all because it maintains the item’s original purpose. Local reuse is the very highest as it minimizes the environmental impact of transportation. Example: a gently used t-shirt worn by someone new.
Repurposing is next. It’s simple and you can do it yourself without machinery, making it very sustainable. Example: the t-shirt cut into rags.
Recycling is third because it keeps materials useful but it can mean quality degradation and it uses energy-dependent processes (in lower amounts than creating new fibers). Example: the t-shirt is turned into mattress stuffing.
Disposal is the lowest use because it’s when an item finally goes to a landfill. Example: throwing the t-shirt away.
With next highest use in mind, we can decide that last year’s winter coat should be reused as long as it’s still in good condition; a holey sock should be repurposed (perhaps as a duster) or recycled depending on how worn it is; and the dog’s soiled bed should be disposed of because it’s no longer in good enough condition for any of the other options.
Fast fashion: the reuse complicator
If you feel as if you buy more clothes now than ever before, you’re likely right. And you’re definitely not alone. Brands today produce twice the amount of clothing as they did in 2000 and the average consumer buys 60% more clothing compared to 15 years ago. At the same time, the number of wears per garment has declined by more than 35%—many pieces are worn only seven to ten times before being tossed.
With so much excess available, the clothes you clear out of your closet may never actually make it into new hands, even when you have the best intentions and drop off at a donation center.
Inexpensive new clothes are highly accessible, making it easy and affordable to buy them instead of choosing preloved items. Plus, with the massive volume available secondhand, it’s easy to overlook good items. If a like-new sweater is hidden in a bag of stained towels and ripped t-shirts, it may be missed and end up in a landfill.
Passing along clothes to well-vetted local organizations (including our more than 200 nonprofit partners) is still a wonderful solution—just make sure you give clean, gently used items, ideally ones that the organization has specifically asked for. Most publish wishlists to let their community know what they need. They often have neither the volunteer power nor the space to handle items in worn condition or things they already have too many of.
Other solutions to make sure small amounts of clothes, shoes, and accessories get to someone who will use them include:
Share in a local Buy Nothing group
Host a swap party
Sell online on a site such as Poshmark
The trickiest textiles to reuse through any outlet are large ones such as sheets, blankets, towels, tablecloths, and curtains. For bedding and towels, look into local animal shelters and rescue organizations. For household textiles, community groups like Buy Nothing can be the straightest path to reuse.
At a large scale with thousands of used articles of clothing flowing through at any given time, secondhand shopping is the most dependable outlet to get items to new owners who will use them.
While the excess of preloved items on the planet is truly huge, the resale market is growing by 12% every year, delivering more and more items to new owners. Younger generations, in particular, embrace preloved items—50% of Gen Z shoppers have bought used clothing, shoes, or accessories.
Ways to repurpose used textiles
Looking at your clothing through a new lens can be a fun and creative way to love your things for longer. Some of our favorite ways to repurpose clothes include:
Using pretty much any ripped item as a dust cloth or cleaning rag
Sewing old t-shirts into a quilt or pillow—if you don’t sew, you can find local makers or online companies to do this for you
Turning old jeans into purses—the pockets come in handy
Braiding fabric strips into rugs
Cutting up old sweatshirts to use as dog-bed filler
Making old bed sheets into garden covers
Wrapping gifts with bits of any fabric
Building forts and play tents for kids to enjoy
Saving as drop cloths for messy projects
Keeping an old blanket in your car or emergency kit
Once you start repurposing, the ideas will flow. Bonus: making things means you also avoid buying things. If you have a good supply of leftover fabric, you may never need to buy wrapping paper again!
Textile recycling solutions
Despite the massive volume of textiles on our planet, only 12% are recycled. Of that 12%, only about 1% is turned into new clothing. When you buy clothing made with recycled polyester, for example, it’s usually made from plastic bottles, not worn textiles.
Fiber-to-fiber recycling—the kind where you turn old textiles into new textiles—is difficult for multiple reasons.
Even with excellent collection and sorting processes, most modern clothing is made from mixed fibers (such as 60% cotton/40% polyester) that need to be separated before they can be recycled
Current recycling technology isn’t equipped to handle the vast array of textile types and blends
Even 100% cotton garments can be problematic because the thread, printing materials, and labels used are often different materials
Chemical dyes and finishes can be too difficult to remove
The cost of recycling is generally higher than manufacturing new fabrics, making it unappealing to brands and designers.
So what happens to the other 11% that’s recycled today?
Much of it is turned into fiber insulation, a useful material made by shredding the textiles into their base fibers. While the practice of making similar materials has existed since the early 1800s, the quality is better and the scale is bigger today than ever.
Making fiber insulation saves energy compared to producing virgin fiber and reduces demand for water-intensive crops like cotton. It has lots of applications as a raw material, including:
Insulation, padding, and soundproofing materials in the construction and automotive industries
Low-cost yarns for products like blankets, rugs, and upholstery
Stuffing for mattresses, cushions, and furniture.
Specialty papers, like currency paper
Turning used textiles into fiber insulation keeps them useful so they avoid landfills for years or even decades.
When is disposal the best option?
As the lowest use of any item, disposal is a last resort for things that can’t be reused, repurposed or recycled. Think about items that are moldy, wet, dirty, or oily, or things that have been exposed to pet hairs or pests.
When possible, choose to repair broken items such as belts and purses, to re-sole shoes, and to use items such as bathmats and gardening gloves for as long as you can.
Building new habits
Keeping the concept of next highest use in mind is useful when you have things to get rid of, and it’s even relevant when you’re choosing what to buy. If you keep it in mind, you’ll likely find that some of your lifestyle habits change.
You may find that you choose to buy fewer pieces of higher quality clothing that will last longer. You may find that you enjoy hosting accessory swaps with friends and neighbors. You may buy more items made from repurposed materials.
Just like thinking about the next highest use when you have items to get rid of, all of these changes are small steps toward a more sustainable lifestyle that you can feel great about.
