Why shopping at recycled clothing stores is the future

“More than 15 million tons of used textile waste is generated each year in the United States, and the amount has doubled over the last 20 years.”

https://www.thebalancesmb.com/textile-recycling-facts-and-figures-2878122

Why should we shop at 2nd hand or thrift stores?

“The main benefit of textile recycling activities is the opportunity to reuse clothing. Through the reuse of clothes and textiles, we can avoid pollution and energy-intensive production of new clothing. Additionally, clothing that cannot be reused may be repurposed into such products as rags or recycled into fabric or other material for reprocessing. As Greenpeace cautioned in a 2016 press release, however, the “technological challenges mean full recycling of clothing into new fibers is still far from commercially viable.” Even the recovery and sales of used clothing has been a controversial topic, especially for export to developing nations.

Following are some interesting facts about textile and garment recycling:

1. More than 15 million tons of used textile waste is generated each year in the United States, and the amount has doubled over the last 20 years. In 2014, over 16 million tons of textile waste was generated, according to the U.S. EPA. Of this amount, 2.62 million tons were recycled,3.14 million tons were combusted for energy recovery, and 10.46 million tons were sent to the landfill. An average American throws away approximately 80 pounds of used clothing per person. On average, nationally, it costs cities $45 per ton to dispose of old clothing.

Synthetic clothing may take hundreds of years to decompose.

2. Only about 0.1% of recycled fiber collected by charities and take back programs is recycled into new textile fiber.

3. Consumers are regarded as the main culprit for throwing away their used clothing as only 15 percent of consumer used clothing is recycled where more than 75 percent of pre-use clothing is recycled by the manufacturers.

4. According to Greenpeace, global clothing production doubled from 2000 to 2014. The average person buys 60 percent more items of clothing every year and keeps them for about half as long as 15 years ago, generating a huge amount of waste.

5. The average lifetime of a cloth is approximately 3 years.

6. Nearly 100 percent of textiles and clothing are recyclable.

7. The annual environmental impact of a household’s clothing is equivalent to the water needed to fill 1,000 bathtubs and the carbon emissions from driving an average modern car for 6,000 miles

8.  If the average life of clothing was extended by just three months, it would reduce by five to ten percent their carbon and water footprints, as well as waste generation. The recycling of two million tons of clothing per year equates to taking one million cars from U.S. streets.

9. More than 70 percent of the world’s population uses secondhand clothing.  About 50 percent of collected shoes and clothing is used as second-hand products. Meanwhile, 20 percent is used to produce polishing and cleaning cloths for various industrial purposes and 26 percent is recycled for applications such as fiber for insulation products, upholstery, fiberboard, and mattresses.

10. The United States textile recycling industry removes approximately 2.5 billion pounds of post-consumer textiles each year from the waste stream and the industry creates more than 17,000 jobs. Among this workforce, 10,000 are semi-skilled employees employed in the primary processing of used textile and the remaining 7,000 employees are employed in the final processing stage. There are more than 500 garments recycling companies in the USA and majority of these companies are owned and operated by small and family businesses, each of which employs 35 to 50 workers.”
(https://www.thebalancesmb.com/textile-recycling-facts-and-figures-2878122)

Some 2nd hand clothing stores in Sacramento: 

1. TRUE – Totally Recycled Urban Exchange
(916) 643-4606
1900 K St
Midtown

2.  Freestyle Clothing Exchange
(916) 442-3733
1114 21st St
Midtown

3.  WEAVEWorks Recycled Fashion
(916) 643-4606
2401 Arden Way

4. Thrift Town
(916) 922-9942

410 El Camino Ave