Dispose of old clothes properly to reduce ‘fashion waste’

Cleaning out the closet is one of the household chores that people often do near Tet. With old clothes, the first solution many people think of is to send them to charity. They believe that this helps get rid of items that are no longer needed and transfer them to people in need, thereby reducing fashion waste. However, the reality is often the opposite.

Aja Barber, author of the book “Consumed” – which focuses on the links between fast fashion, climate change and consumerism – warns that most donated clothes do not end up “in the good place we hope”. They end up in landfills or exported to fashion waste capitals in underdeveloped countries like Ghana, Kenya and Uganda.

Last year, the small charity store Second Life in East Sussex (UK) had to throw away 250 kg of clothes every two weeks. And the charity warehouse of St Luke’s nursing hospital in Sheffield threw away up to 2 tons of old items after three days.

Every year, the fashion industry generates 92 million tons of waste globally, according to the United Nations. On average, every second a truck full of old clothes is burned or buried. However, charitable donations if done incorrectly can increase the waste burden. Many people keep the mindset of “cleaning house”, sending away all unused items, causing the receiving place to be overloaded.

Basically, the operating model of a charity is to select usable items to sell and raise funds. Items that are torn, have stains, have bad odors… are trash, the receiving unit must pay extra to handle them properly.

“That is, the items you think are donated to them, actually cost them money,” said Jen Graham, a fashion stylist and KOL specializing in shopping for used items. She owns the Charity Shop Girl account with more than 1.7 million likes on TikTok and hundreds of followers on Instagram.

Below are the steps to properly dispose of old clothes, as suggested by experts.

Send to charity

Jen recommends a basic rule of thumb: “don’t give away an item you wouldn’t dare give to a friend.” Users also need to wash their clothes, pack them carefully in sealed bags, and should not send too much at a time. Jen said inserting a large amount of clothes into the bag makes the fabric easily wrinkled and damaged during transportation.

According to Jen, the quality of items is more important than the brand. She recommends that donated items should be essential products of good quality such as sports shoes, bags, scarves…

Some organizations in Vietnam that regularly accept used clothes include REshare, Urban Circular Space, E2K. With Urban Circular Space and E2K, old clothes will be donated to charity and recycled. Meanwhile, REshare operates resale and fashion waste processing.

Resell

This is a smarter and more environmentally friendly solution than donating, according to The Guardian. According to the organization promoting the circular economy Ellen Macarthur Foundation, on average a fashion item is only worn 7-10 times and then thrown away, some are even never used. If people wear twice as much as above, they can reduce their environmental footprint by up to 44%.

The second-hand fashion market is booming in the UK, with two-thirds of users buying second-hand items online in 2024. This trend is driven by the cost of living crisis and environmental concerns. One of the popular platforms in this field is Vinted – a startup from Lithuania – currently a billion-dollar unicorn. Earlier this year, they headed to New York (USA) – where 55% of people find their closets do not have enough storage space, and 70% of young people own more than 3 items with intact tags.

In Chile, Desierto Vestido, an organization that raises awareness about textile waste, organized the Re-commerce Atacama campaign early last year, to resell new Nike, Adidas, and Calvin Klein clothes from trash piles in the Atacama desert. Every year, about 40,000 tons of clothes are thrown into this desert. Bastián Barria, co-founder of Desierto Vestido, found hundreds of fashion items here, half of which were still in perfect condition.

In Vietnam, Glammie Vietnam Co., Ltd accepts consignment of used clothes, with newness over 90%. Users can also sell products on their personal pages or participate in local exchange and liquidation events.

Repair

This is also a solution to increase reuse of items. Layla Sargent, founder of repair and tailoring platform Seam, says many tailors are individual businesses, relying on word-of-mouth branding. Many technology businesses like Seam were born to digitize traditional clothing repair and tailoring services.

In addition to clothes, the repair service also covers accessories, from shoes bitten by dogs to clogs with broken heels. Some companies provide home repair services, or pick up items via delivery.

Change style and purpose of use

Amy Bannerman, eBay UK’s former fashion style director, said if users feel their current wardrobe is boring, they can experiment with investing in a new item to coordinate with existing fashion items. “It could be a warm blazer for winter. I wear it with dark straight-leg Levi’s and a few warm layers underneath,” Amy says.

An unsuitable item can change its function. For example, skilled craftsmen can turn a wedding dress into everyday wear, and a suede apron into a convenient handbag.

Recycle

In fact, only 1% of fibers are recycled into new fibers globally. Most old clothes are sent to landfills or downcycled into other items such as rags and insulation materials.

Therefore, experts recommend that users send items to units with transparent recycling programs, instead of putting them in public trash bins. In the UK, print-on-demand shirt platform Teemill (on the Isle of Wight) initiated a recycling program for used cotton shirts. Accordingly, they accept items with labels proving the material (except underwear and jeans), then mix them with new organic cotton fibers in a 50:50 ratio to weave into new fibers for the Rapanui fashion brand.

Reskinned – a business that sells old, creatively recycled second-hand fashion – accepts a wider variety of fabrics. They promise that any item sent in will be repaired, resold or recycled.

Minimize use

Faced with the problem of fashion waste and limited processing capacity, experts recommend that users buy responsibly, pay attention to sustainable materials, and wear longer to prolong the life cycle of each item.

In addition, the Hot or Cold Institute for Sustainable Development recommends that users moderate their shopping. Each person should only buy 5 fashion items per year.

Experts also note the level of decomposition of each fashion material, as most of the waste stream ends up in landfills. According to Reskinned, linen and flax materials decompose in 2 weeks, cotton fabric takes 1-5 months, denim takes 10-12 months. Polyester is a plastic-based fabric that will not decompose even to our descendants, but the sequins on sparkling party dresses will last for hundreds of years.