A shift toward lower-cost, disposable clothing is generating more textile waste nationwide, but local organizations and companies are working toward reducing that and giving clothing a second life.
“One of the big issues is what we call ‘fast fashion,’” said Jerry Bartley, territory manager with USAgain and member of the Missouri Recycling Association. “It used to be, you have summer, spring, winter, fall clothing.
Now fashion changes monthly, and the clothing, they buy such amounts of it and it’s easily disposable. Because the fashion changes so fast and clothes have become so cheap, people tend to just throw them away instead of recycling them.”
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, as much as 85 percent of textiles generated each year are discarded annually. On average, each American donates or recycles 12 pounds of apparel, footwear and household textiles yearly.
Of items that are donated, 10 to 20 percent are sold through thrift stores to raise revenue for the organization. Statistically, approximately 80 percent of the donated items are sold to secondhand clothing recyclers, which also can generate income.
“Textiles are the easiest recyclable product when you compare it to aluminum, glass or paper,” Bartley said. “You simply have to capture it, pull it out of the waste stream and get it back into the market. The biggest issue that we have is the general public simply is not aware that textiles are recyclable.”
At the Hillcrest Thrift Shop, clothing accounts for approximately 80 percent of their donations and 80 percent of their sales, said Abbey Resler, thrift store manager.
All donations are sorted, and clothing that isn’t able to be sold or doesn’t sell in the thrift shop is “recycled,” or sold to a secondhand recycling company. About 50 percent of the donated clothing is recycled, which also contributes income to the organization, Resler said.
“Almost all of the clothes that we can’t put out gets recycled,” she said. “Someone, somewhere in this world are getting to use those. All your donations are really helpful. It’s just a big cycle, which I think is great. Nothing is really getting wasted.”
Of the items sold to secondhand recyclers nationwide, about 45 percent are reused or re-purposed, often exported as secondhand clothing. About a third is recycled and converted, and about 20 percent is recycled into fiber for products including home insulation and carpet padding. About 5 percent ends up as waste.
“The clothes that are not usable or wearable are cut up into rags,” Bartley said. “The clothes that aren’t even suitable for being cut up into rags are ground up into insulation. A lot of automotive dealers are starting to use that underneath the floor mats and things in their cars.”
Used clothing resale and consignment stores are another model of recycling clothing. The 2017 thredUp annual resale report estimated that apparel resale is an $18 billion dollar industry, expected to grow to $33 billion by 2021.
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