"No One Wants Your Used Clothes Anymore"

[leno...@yahoo.com]

Pretty scary.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/no-one-wants-your-used-clothes-anymore?utm_source=pocket-newtab


A once-virtuous cycle is breaking down. What now?
Bloomberg |

Adam Minter

For decades, the donation bin has offered consumers in rich countries a guilt-free way to unload their old clothing. In a virtuous and profitable cycle, a global network of traders would collect these garments, grade them, and transport them around the world to be recycled, worn again, or turned into rags and stuffing.

Now that cycle is breaking down. Fashion trends are accelerating, new clothes are becoming as cheap as used ones, and poor countries are turning their backs on the secondhand trade. Without significant changes in the way that clothes are made and marketed, this could add up to an environmental disaster in the making.

Nobody is more alert to this shift than the roughly 200 businesses devoted to recycling clothes into yarn and blankets in Panipat, India. Located 55 miles north of Delhi, the dusty city of 450,000 has served as the world's largest recycler of woolen garments for at least two decades, becoming a crucial outlet for the $4 billion used-clothing trade...

(snip)



Lenona.

[The Real Bev]

We used to go to yard sales every Saturday. By far the most frequent
item for sale was clothing. Sometimes on hangers, sometimes in piles,
sometimes sold by the sackfull. EVERYBODY had too many clothes.
Mexicans would buy bales of baby clothes for apparent resale below the
border, but I have to believe that most of the rest ended up in the
Goodwill box.

It seemed sad. I've bought (all used) far more than I need, including
really nice ski stuff that people paid a bundle for.

I feel sorry for people who feel they have to stay 'in fashion', largely
because I think they're not very bright. The super-rich are different,
of course, but people with ordinary incomes shouldn't waste what they
have on stuff that turns into junk within months.

--
Cheers, Bev
Hmph. I used to have snow tires. Never again. They melted in the
spring. I won't even start going on about my wood stove.
-- websurf1

[Beaver...@live.com]

I sometimes dump stuff in the bin.

My clothes buying habits are really basic but I would have stuff I didn't want or need or that would never fit.

Now I did clear out a bunch of concert T shirts and gave them to someone to sell on consignment for me and had $800 within a few days and the remaining ones are still trickling out the door.

[blinking...@gmail.com]

Except new clothes are ill fitting fast
fashion shit unless you buy expensive
(and I don't mean The Gap or whatever,
I mean EXPENSIVE).

At least at Goodwill and other thrift
stores I can find a good quality shirt
which will last for more than a month,
and fit my big frame well. I love the
big 70's collars, and those shirts are
typicaly built well, because
most of the time they were made in the USA. Even when they are not, the quality
is still good (no made in Bangledesh or
someother shitwater country)