Unwanted Clothes Collection for Charity 👗👟👜

MerylStreep

For those who aren’t aware of what happens to all that throw away clothing.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/horrific-cost-fast-fashion-obsession-30570544

That is shocking MerylStreep. It’s worth remembering the horrific photographs on here before being tempted to buy things we don’t need especially “bargain” clothing.
There is a huge environmental and indeed climate impact in the manufacture and disposal of this stuff.
A true indictment of our throwaway society.

That’s good to know MerylStreep. I have lots of ex-charity shop clothes that are only fit for rags and have been wondering how to get rid of them.

Athrawes
All the clothes in the Salvation Army bins go to rag recycling.
Not to their shops.

I am having a good sort out of clothes that are in good condition and DH found a Salvation Army 'bin' which accepts such items so hopefully he'll take them there.

For those who aren’t aware of what happens to all that throw away clothing.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/horrific-cost-fast-fashion-obsession-30570544

I’ve used eBay for years both buying and selling , but I’ve just discovered Vinted . It’s so much easier to upload photos and the items details than eBay and no fees.

Isn't it better to sell on your good clothes? Ebay and Vinted are simple to use. You can sell at low prices just to get rid of stuff - and encourage others to explore second-hand bargains. It's surprising how it all adds up. I like the idea of somebody else making use of them, even by selling on.

Our charity shop is closed at present, yet still people dump all kinds of utter rubbish outside. Things I'd have to put straight in the bin or rip up for cleaning rags, like ancient t-shirts are left there.

Yes PamelaJ1 that’s the crux of it. We consume, and waste too much. Clothing manufacture & distribution (and waste presumably) is responsible for 10% of the world’s global emissions.

BlueBelle

Where do the clothes etc go ?

Don’t know about this scheme but I read this in the Times this weekend .
It’s actually quite a long article but the gist of it is that we are buying too much and passing the burden of disposing of our unwanted stuff over to third world countries.

I decided not to enquire after reading that they give the charities £x per ton of clothes collected - I know that charity shops get money for clothes they can’t sell but would like to think that what I have to donate, all good quality, some good labels, clean and wearable, doesn’t fall into that category. So where do the clothes they collect end up? That worries me. A charity would get a very tiny sum based on weight for my nice things if I used this company. Such a shame.

Oh dear! I don’t know what to do now. I have been in contact with the charity recommended by Fanny and although I live in a rural area they do collect from my area weekly but having read some of the comments on here I am hesitant to proceed. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

BlueBelle
I could tell some very embarrassing stories about the donations from our own volunteers.
My manager is so kind and lovely that she won’t offend anyone with donations. That won’t happen for the next 6 weeks, I’m in charge 😉

Tenko some of the stuff donated I often wonder where the donors heads are
No we don’t want puked on baby bibs, dresses or tops etc or sheets with urine stains, worn knickers or bras, we don’t need stuff with holes in or totally unwashed . Kids stuff with felt tip scribbled on or just a whole bagful of unusable toys with bits broken or missing, soft toys with chewed hands tail etc.books that have been torn or written or coloured in

Of course we also get bags of beautiful stuff but we do get far more than we can keep or sell often more than 100 donations some days I do all I can to find alternative homes for some things that we can’t sell
….
A few years ago when the Syrian refugee problem was at its height I became a coordinator from my own home to collect lorry loads of clothes and other useful items for these displaced people. I gave out leaflets about what I could and couldn’t accept but still I got some most unsuitable items for these poor folk, many walking across Europe, to try and get to safety . ‘The best’ being women’s very high heeled (sexy) shoes, thongs, swimming costumes and the very best a scarlet basque.

Yes we do have a rag bag and send quite a lot off . I’m not sure how much in kilos per week . I too was surprised how much donated stuff gets ragged . I was also surprised about the amount of dirty clothes the public donate! How hard is it to wash before you donate ? .

We all have too many clothes.

I have quite a full wardrobe, but most of my stuff is years old, perfectly wearable, and I rarely go anywhere important.

If we all made do with what we’ve got, and wore our clothes ‘out’ more, maybe there wouldn’t be such a problem.

And if we borrowed books from the library, instead of purchasing the latest best seller….

We donate to YMCA but sometimes they are overwhelmed with donations so this is a good link to keep.

BlueBelle. I am shocked by this and was totally ignorant of the huge wastage, and also the problems that this surfeit of clothing is causing in countries where it is shipped.

I am wary of using private companies to dispose of my unwanted stuff, and would prefer to give direct to charities, because it’s difficult to know if profits are fairly distributed, and indeed where the clothing ends up. However I didn’t realise this was such a huge problem for charities.

This is a side effect of over the over consuming throwaway society that we have become I guess.

Baggs

nanna8

I take heaps of stuff to the op shops ( that what they call them here ) but I have to admit I buy stuff there,too. Got a lovely carved Tasmanian wooden pear made from Tasmanian leatherwood for $3 today. I collect different carved wooden fruit dating back from when we lived there in the 1980s.

I'd love to see photos of some of your wooden fruit, nanna8. Might you post some on GN?

I will but we are away at the mo in Philip Island.

BlueBelle
I think if the general public saw exactly how bad the discarded clothing problem is, they would be horrified.
We are having to rag perfectly good clothes as we have a huge storage problem ( but we have been promised it will be sorted ) yeh, right.
We have 2 permanent sale rails outside to try and shift clothes.
Then there’s the books 😱
We have found a wonderful outlet for children’s books and good/clean soft toys.
We have a wonderful school here for neurodiverse children that. They are very happy.

The same Meryl but a bigger shop we get between £100 and £200 a week in ‘rags’ plus the stuff we have to put in our large council bin we pay for two collections a week in refuse
There needs to be a different answer

We are a very small shop. But I would say on average we rag about 200 kilos a month. Then we have the rubbish that we have to pay the council to take away.

Tenko

I volunteer in a charity shop and a lot of stuff which is collected kerbside ends up in markets in 3rd world countries in huge packages. It’s sorted into women’s , men’s , children’s and packaged as such . After that , I have no idea

I’m sure your charity shop has a rag collection, as does ours.
It is estimated that between 60-70% end up in African countries , decimating the local dressmaking industry.
Why do we have to sort it into clothes, bedding, soft toys, shoes handbags into separate bags: so they don’t have too.

Tench unfortunately it’s completely destroying local seemstresses /tailors and local businesses in many African countries and so much of it isn’t usable and is filling up ‘their’ landfill faster than the speed of light
I too work in a charity shop and was clueless until recently, thinking it was all helping, but basically we are sending our s* we don’t want to give them the nightmares we are getting rid of
I don’t know the answers

Fanny
I’m trying to find some info on them.

Scroll down to the last paragraph. Interesting info relating to the country that’s hosting their website.

www.scamadviser.com/check-website/icollectclothes.co.uk?utm_content=cmp-true

I volunteer in a charity shop and a lot of stuff which is collected kerbside ends up in markets in 3rd world countries in huge packages. It’s sorted into women’s , men’s , children’s and packaged as such . After that , I have no idea