Stop Donating Your Clothes

A deeper look into where those clothes you drop off at Goodwill ACTUALLY go.

A woman carrying secondhand jeans at the Kantamanto market in Accra, Ghana, one of the largest secondhand markets in the world.

I’ll admit, the title of this article is a bit click-bait-y. I was inspired by one of my favorite Youtubers, Inspiroue, to write this article. Recently, she posted a video about how the clothes donation system works, and how incredibly wasteful it can be.

Up until about a year ago, I thought that the clothes that I dropped off in a donation bin would end up in a Goodwill store in some part of the country. As of 2018, approximately 15% of donated clothing ended up being re-sold, while the other 85% ended up in the landfill. Additionally, a majority of the clothing that is re-sold is being exported to countries like Pakistan, Malaysia, and Ghana. The Kantamanto secondhand market in Ghana, one of the largest in the world, receives around 15 million tons of clothing every week. The clothing that doesn’t get sold at this market gets put into a landfill. This is yet another example of the United States exporting waste to countries that didn’t create the waste in the first place.

Like I said earlier, the title of this article is somewhat click-bait-y. I’m not saying you should never donate your clothing. However, it should be a last resort. In general, here is how I look at clothing and what to do with it when I am done with it (from best to worst).

1. If it is broken, fix it.
2. If it is dirty, clean it.
3. Give/trade with a sibling, friend, colleague, etc.
4. Repurpose it into something else in your house (rags, bags, etc.)
5. Sell on a secondhand site like Poshmark, dePop, etc.
6. Donate to a local organization, shelter, somewhere where you can guarantee it won’t be thrown in the trash.
7. Find a place that will actually recycle that item. For Days has a semi-reputable clothes recycling program where you can buy a “take-back” bag from them and they will recycle your clothing. In general, I am wary of larger companies that claim they can recycle clothes. A lot of clothing material cannot be recycled, and a lot of times, that clothing ends up in the landfill as well.
8. Donate it.
9. Throw it in the trash.

There are probably other creative solutions, but overall, donating clothes should be one of the last resorts. If I’m being honest, it’s really hard to figure out what to do with used clothing. Donating is probably one of the easiest things you can do, and once you’ve dropped it off, it is “out of sight out of mind”. I want to reiterate that donating clothing is not evil, but the system has been over-burdened by over-consumption. In an ideal world, 100% of donated clothing would be re-sold, but we are creating and buying way more clothing than what people actually need.

To conclude this article, I want to say that the best thing you can possibly do is buy less clothing! The less we buy, the less waste we create. Lastly, I want to note it is equally, if not more important to hold corporations and governments accountable. Governments need to hold corporations responsible for the waste they create. Without both individual, and legislative impact, the root problem will never be fixed.

Some Resources and Further Reading

Beginner’s Guide to Sustainability — my article about what you can do on an individual level to live a slightly more sustainable life

Donated Clothing Lifecycles — Inspiroue’s video about the secondhand market

Kantamanto Market — short video about the market and how it operates

Dead White Man’s Clothes — an in-depth article about the impacts of the secondhand market

Fast Fashion is Creating an Environmental Crisis — Newsweek article about the impact of fast fashion on African countries