Recycle Your Clothing

I am amazed at the difficulty of donating stuff.  Even in New York City – where there are ample opportunities to donate – it is pretty hard to dispose of unwanted items without much effort.  Fine for me – I’ll just make the effort, but that isn’t the point.  The point is: if you want people to take action, you have to make it easy.

Clearly it makes sense to recycle clothing.  It reduces waste and provides clothing to others who want or need it at a much lower cost.  But, as anyone who has filled a garbage bag full of unused clothing before trying to pick it up and carry it down a staircase (it will break), can attest, it isn’t always easy to recycle clothes.

Well, here, in New York City, it is easy!  (Don’t worry, if you don’t live in NYC, there are clothing recycling solutions for you, too.)  I went downstairs in my apartment building recently and found this clothes recycling bin from Wearable Collections:

Wearable Collections makes it so easy to drop off clothing as you need, right in your building.  This summer, I heard the building management say the bin had been emptied twice.  Also, Wearable Collections has started putting bins in local green markets, so if you don’t have one in your building, request a clothing recycling bin or visit one at a greenmarket near you!

But what about in other places? Well, on a recent drive back from NC with my dog, Gus, I stopped in the middle of Pennsylvania (after getting 36 mpg) for gas.  Gus and I needed to stretch our legs and, on a walk around the gas station, I saw a curious red bin.

Yes, you can find a place to recycle clothes out here!

A Clothing Recycle Bin from U'SAGain

U’SAgain is a commercial (for-profit) clothing collection company that has locations in Atlanta, Chicago, Colorado, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New York, Seattle and St. Louis.  See the U’SAgain sustainability discussion on SocialYell

So maybe I was wrong.  It is easier than ever to recycle clothing, so get out and do it now!

Here are a few more pics from the road:

Gus doesn't wear clothes, but if he did, he would recycle them. His carbon footprint is smaller than his actual footprint.

I made the road trip in my SocialYell T-Shirt. Want one?