How to Give Your Unwanted Clothes a Second Life

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For immediately’s matter in our persevering with sequence on eco-friendly procuring, let’s focus on how you can give your undesirable garments a second life! We received into this a bit with our submit on where to recycle, donate, and resell your old work clothes, but it surely’s been some time…

As a reminder, a few of our different latest posts embrace how to avoid fast fashion for work clothes, in addition to how to make your workwear more eco-friendly. We’ve additionally rounded up clothing brands with resale programs, and (on the monetary aspect) mentioned socially responsible investing.

Learn how to Give Your Undesirable Garments a Second Life

1. Reward clothes domestically via Purchase Nothing, different group gifting teams on Fb (or different websites), and mutual help networks. (To seek out mutual help teams in your space, use this search tool from Mutual Aid Hub or google “[Your City] Mutual Help Community.”) Some Purchase Nothing Fb teams have distanced themselves from the official Purchase Nothing group (WIRED did a deep dive on this final 12 months) and now have names like “Neighborhood Gifting [City Name],” so you might have to do some looking.

2. Give your undesirable clothes to family and friends. Ideally (when you have related style!), they may reciprocate!

3. Arrange a clothes swap with pals (readers, have you ever achieved this? I completely wish to), or discover one run by a local people group. Simply google “clothes swap [City Name].”

4. Donate garments to charities that distribute on to folks in want, like Dress for Success, refugee help teams, clothes closet packages run by locations of worship, and school profession facilities that present interview outfits to college students from lower-income households.

5. Recycle your garments. As of February 2024, shops that settle for denim for recycling embrace Rag & Bone, Muji, and Madewell (via the Blue Jeans Go Green program). Sadly, most clothes can’t be composted, as Fast Company has identified.

Consideration, mother and father: Terracycle, which we featured in this Tool of the Trade post, accepts all manufacturers of child and youngsters’ garments for recycling (they provide you a label without spending a dime transport) — you may enroll at Terracycle.com. For those who ship a field of greater than 15 lbs., you’ll earn My Rewarding Moments factors to make use of at Carter’s.

6. Donate your eyeglasses. To make use of the Lions Clubs recycling program for glasses, drop your glasses off at a collaborating Walmart Imaginative and prescient Middle, collaborating native membership (search this directory), or Lions Eyeglasses Recycling Facilities (search this directory).

Inventory photograph by way of Pexels / cottonbro studios.