Where to discard your clothes when not in use anymore?
One of the most common questions we get from our readers is where to discard, donate or leave their clothes when not in use anymore. Most of us probably go through our closets once in a while and it often happens that there are items that we don’t want anymore. A Sustainable Closet is supportive of the idea of only keeping clothes in your closet that you use during a yearly cycle but we have to take responsibility for the clothes whose time in our closet has ended.
We would recommend you to follow this checklist for you to make sure your clothes will be used again or left somewhere responsible.
Pack away your clothes or let someone borrow them
It sometimes happens we are too eager to clean out that we might give away clothes that we, later on, want to use again. You could pack away your clothes for the season and see how you feel about them next. Remember the clothes should be taken care over throughout your life compared than being left in a second-hand market where no one buys them. You could also let your friends keep a few of your items for a few months and see if you miss them.
2. Rent out
If you have nice clothes that you don’t use that often, maybe someone else can use them? There are several platforms out there offering rental services? For example Gemme Collective! Check out if this is something for you!
Photo by Artificial Photography on Unsplash
3. Sell on Second hand
There are three benefits to selling through a second-hand store, 1. Your garment will probably find a new owner 2. You will make some extra cash and 3. You will probably support a small-scale entrepreneur business wanting to be a part of the circular transition (but not necessarily, some of the platforms mentioned here are far from small). If your item has a high likeliness of being sold depends of course on the platform and what kind of clothes you are selling. A good idea can be to sort your clothes into Vintage, High-end, Medium-end, Sustainable labels and fast fashion. Are there some items being more trendy than others? Are you selling clothes suitable for the season? We would recommend you to sell clothes and sort them out before the season and not after, that makes it more likely for the garment to find a new owner. For high-end you have apps like Vestiarie Collective and TheRealReal. For vintage, you have platforms such as Vintagesphere, Etsy and eBay. You can also use Tise and Popswap (exchange of clothes). For more general clothes. For mid-end brands you can check out Labels We Love if you’re based in Sweden on Facebook or Rerobe (also accept some fast fashion). Circle of clothes is a popular Facebook group in Sweden but people mostly buy on trends, but you can sell Zara and H&M there.
Other popular places to sell online are Depop, ThredUp, Poshmark and Rebag (for luxury bags and so on). Zadaa is commonly used in Finland, Denmark and Germany and Sellpy in Sweden.
Again, check out what is most common in your country, sell clothes based on the above-mentioned categories and check reviews from other sellers, some platforms have a better rating than others.
4. Donate to Second hand
Anything you want to sell can you also donate directly. The benefit of donating is that it is way quicker and the products being sold will go for a good cause. Different charity shops have different causes, so check out where your money will go before donating. That being said, different charity shops have different expertise in what an item is valued or not. If you do have something of the high or mid-end brand, for example, mention this to the staff (or the volunteers) so they can make the item more visible. Otherwise, the item that would probably sell might just be stuck in with plenty of other clothes and not sold which would be unfortunate. Unfortunately a lot of clothes donated to charity just end up being exported and not sold. Therefore it might be wiser to see if you have certain clothes you know could be more interesting to customers and help the charity shop out by highlighting this. Many are run by volunteers who might not have the same expertise regarding fashion and trends.
We find stores such as Red Cross, Erikshjälpen, Stadsmissionen and Björkå&frihet in Scandinavia to be trustworthy.
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash
5. Upcycle and mend
Are you sure your clothes don’t just need an uplift? There are simple ways to up-cycle your clothes. Maybe that long skirt can become a short one? Maybe your jeans just need a few patches? Or do your socks needs to be fixed? Check out the videos below and see how to do it yourself or use services such as Repamera (if you are based in Sweden).
6. Reuse as cleaning products or children’s toy clothes
Have you watched the popular movies on how old socks become clothes for Barbies? Well, there are many ways old textiles can be used for children but also other needs in your household. Have you ever used old bedsheets when cleaning your windows for example?
Photo: NyTeknik
7. Leave for recycling
This one is hard. Currently, textile recycling is not available in most municipalities and even the ones that collect textiles will probably still export the textiles for a second sorting and selling on the second-hand market. There is no greater value in broken, smelling and over-used textiles at the moment so many of the companies and organisations offering to recycle are still collaborating with partners who are mostly interested in the clothes that can be sold again. Check with your local charity second hand who they are partnering with for discarded textiles. See if they accept old textiles that can’t be sold. Some do and some of them don’t. We say charity because many of them get more textiles donated than what they can sell. Profitable businesses seldom accept or sell clothes they don’t believe have a demand on the market, this is why they want to pick and choose for themselves based on what they think their customers would like. If you live in a country where your old textiles might end up in landfills, see if you can do any of the following steps above to avoid that from happening.
Companies that do recycle old textiles are Siptex which has one of the most giant sorting machines in the world and is offering a material they call ReFab®, you can read more about it here! Renewcell is also dissolved in cotton and other cellulose materials and transformed into the raw material Circulose®. That being said, it is seldom companies that do recycling offer possibilities for the household to discard directly, often they collaborate with larger organisations or municipalities to get the amount they need.
Be aware that several brands are claiming to have recycled materials, but that doesn’t mean it comes from post-consumer textile waste. Always ask and check before buying and maybe they can give you a clue on where to hand in your garments if they do have a good partner. Remember that only 1% of the global textiles today are being recycled.
Also, check with your municipality what plan they have to address the textile waste. It is their responsibility and by 2025 all European countries shall collect and sort out textile from other household waste. Currently, only 30-50% of the discarded textiles in the EU are being collected.
The best thing we all can do is to avoid buying clothes we won’t love and use for a long time in the first place. We hope this checklist made it easier for you to discard your clothes responsibly.