Everyone knows that recycling can play a big role in helping to preserve the environment for future generations. More people than ever are being careful to make sure that they recycle all of their plastic and paper materials, but one material that often goes overlooked is textiles. Clothing is all too frequently tossed into the garbage, from where it will eventually wind up in a landfill.
Many people don't realize it, but clothing is a considerable factor when it comes to humanity's expanding waste problem. Whether people outgrow things or simply move on to the latest fashion trend, a staggeringly large amount of clothing is sent to landfills every year. But it doesn't have to be. There are several outlets available for recycling and donating your clothing that can go a long way toward cutting back on pollution and other harmful environmental factors. Plus, recycling your clothing can be a great way of saving some money while you save the environment.
One of the main reasons clothing is often overlooked when it comes to recycling is that many people don't realize just how much of an impact it's having on our environment. By observing the raw data, people can get a better idea of just how significant of a problem it really is.
According to the EPA, 17,030 tons of textile waste was generated in 2018 and only 2,510 tons of that was recycled. A total of 11,300 tons of textile waste was eventually sent to a landfill. Even more alarming is that these numbers have been steadily increasing year after year ever since 1960. In that year, only 1,760 tons of textile waste was generated.
Most clothing out there is made using organic materials such as cotton and linen, so in theory, it should be biodegradable. In practice, however, it's not quite so simple. When clothing is sent to a landfill, it's often buried under mounds of garbage. This deprives the organic material of the oxygen needed to successfully break down. Instead, the clothing is broken down by various microorganisms using anaerobic digestion. This process produces methane gas that is harmful to the environment and air quality.
More than 10 tons of textiles are thrown out each year, and every pound of that winds up in a landfill. This causes landfills to expand and their harmful environmental effects to increase. Additionally, this expansion can have a detrimental impact on the municipal budgets of landfill-operating counties and can lead to problems for entire communities. Recycling your clothing can help reduce landfill overflow as well as the costs associated with it.
Recycling your clothing doesn't only help the environment; it also helps your neighbors. There are several organizations around the globe that happily accept donated clothing so that it can be passed on to those in need. This could be as local as your neighborhood thrift shops or as global as clothes being sent overseas to other countries.
While it may not be for everyone, many people have chosen to embrace a minimalist lifestyle. This means buying less and placing greater value on what you already own. Those who choose to live life in this fashion often get rid of large amounts of clothing when they make the transition. By recycling unwanted clothes and only buying what's needed moving forward, these individuals can have a large impact on the amount of textile waste produced each year. This helps limit environmental harm while also saving them a significant amount of money that would've been spent on new outfits.
Clothing production uses a lot of energy. Each piece of clothing produced goes through a manufacturing process that requires large amounts of water and energy to keep running. By recycling your clothing, you can help limit the use of this energy, since every article of clothing won't have to be created from nothing. Your old clothes can be used to make brand new ones.
Perhaps the best reason to recycle your clothes is that it's easy. Dropping your clothes off at a donation center or shelter only takes a few minutes, and the positive impact it can have is significant.
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