What *really* happens to our clothing donations
Have you ever wondered what happens to clothes you donate? Dropping off a bag at the charity shop thinking, ‘I doubt anyone will buy any of that’ is a normal thought to have, because you’re getting rid of old clothes, right?
Maybe not.
This next bit might sound harsh at first, but hear us out. We’ve been thinking, when does donating clothes stop being a way of keeping fashion circular and start being a potential excuse to let people off the hook for mindless consumption. That might sound a little rash, and not really in keeping with second-hand September vibes, but we’re just interested in what *actually* happens to our clothing donations and if we need to be more aware of the impact of donations on the planet and charities who have to deal with them.
Elizabeth Woods from Love Not Landfill was kind enough to provide her insight. She works for an organisation doing what they can to keep clothes from ending up in landfill and being loved instead.
Whilst donating and buying from charity shops is of course better than buying first hand clothes and throwing them away when you don’t wear them anymore, sadly, our donations do have a somewhat negative impact on the environment.
Elizabeth told us about some research done in London, 2019, that clearly demonstrates the process from purchase to donation.
"In 2019, Londoners acquired 154,600 tonnes of new clothing (an average of 48 items per person per year) and in the same year got rid of 142,700 tonnes. This clothing consumption resulted in the production of over 2 million tonnes of damaging greenhouse gas emissions, mainly linked to clothing imports.
"Of the c. 44 items of clothing discarded on average by each Londoner in 2019, over 40% ended up in the waste bin (and so they were incinerated or landfilled); and the remaining c.60% was collected by charities, local authorities and textile merchants. Around 10% of those collected clothes are typically reused within London, while around two-thirds are exported overseas either due to a lack of quality or lack of demand for second-hand here in the UK. The rest is discarded or downcycled due to damage or staining.
"So it seems clear that, to avoid clothes being incinerated, landfilled or exported overseas - where we don't always know what happens to it next - the best thing we can all do to reduce the impact of our fashion habits on the planet is to make the most of what we have in our wardrobes already. Donating to charity, while a great thing to do, is not always the most sustainable approach - repairing, sharing or just re-styling the clothes we already own is by far the best way to reduce our impact on the environment."
Elizabeth Woods, Love Not Landfill.
We couldn’t agree more.
How did we get here?
It’s thanks to what GQ described as ‘the onslaught of fast fashion’ that we’ve started viewing fashion and trends as more fleeting, making charity shops a buffer for our disposal, reducing the need to purchase with intention. As well as that, with the boom in thrifted fashion (yay) there’s been an increase in clothes donated. But that’s good right?
In many ways yes, but there’s also more to it.
What does it mean?
We learned that clothing donations were initially shipped to the Global South in the 1970s/80s as a response to flooding. Again, this was good at first, but now the amount of people working in the textile industry in Ghana has decreased by 75% because prices of newly made garments (by local business) can’t compare to disposed goods. If you’re interested in learning more about this, we suggest reading the whole of GQ’s article.
Not only that, but with fast fashion and trend cycles being extremely popular, the quality of donations is worse. Charity shops receive many clothes that aren’t good enough to sell on, so they go to landfill. This is also bad for those working in garment resale in places including Kenya, Tazania and Ghana. They can’t make as much money for themselves when the garments they are receiving are in poor condition.
What do we do now?
We need to cut off the damage at the source: shopping. If we limit what we buy in the first place and consider how often we will wear the piece (the 7 outfit test) then we will be less likely to fall out of love with our purchases and donate clothes as a result.
We’ve written about this a lot on our blog over the years, so check out some of our articles including 5 steps to ordering items you won’t return and how to develop sustainable fashion habits for more advice on purchasing with intention.
We want to be clear that no one should feel bad for donating to charity, and it’s unrealistic that we’ll never want new clothes, but the truth is that even when we do donate old items rather than throwing them away, they aren’t exempt from ending up in landfill in the Global South. From the study above alone, two thirds of items purchased in London 2019 ended up in landfills outside of the UK. We’re shifting the responsibility of our consumption onto others, and it’s time to be aware of it (no time like Second-hand September, eh).
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