(no subject)

[semperfiona]

Two weeks ago when I arrived to pick Rosa up from her dad's house, she had been sleeping in a holey T-shirt that used to be her dad's. I said something about it being time to retire the shirt, and he had her put it in their "poor bag" of used clothing.

I complained that it was worn out and should just be either discarded or cut up for rags. He insisted that the receiving organization would sort everything and it should go anyway. I said they'd probably throw out the whole bag if items in it were that tatty.

It still bugs me. I believe there's no honor in donating trash; it's one thing if I can't use it anymore because of size (it doesn't fit anymore) or taste issues (i.e. I'm tired of the color or something) but it's entirely another to use the donation container as an auxiliary rubbish bin.

[Poll #1238277]

Comments

[egwenna.livejournal.com]

I'm with you. If it's too ratty for me to wear, and I wouldn't offer it to a friend because it's too ratty, it's a rag and I either paint in it, clean with it or throw it away.

[maiabee8.livejournal.com]

It is sometimes ok to donate "worn-out items" if they are easily repairable. Many orginizations have work-skills programs that they run simultaniously to repair the broken items they receive. A ratty t-shirt should be turned into rags, but an old stereo with a fixable problem is fine to donate.

what to do with worn-out clothing

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

i wouldn't donate raggy clothes to any random charity, because it might just make more work for them.

however, some have deals with secondary market textile recyclers, and there is a wealth of uses those put those fabrics to, and it's all better than dumping them into the landfill -- it takes just a phone call to find out. my local salvation army does, and i sort out the tatty stuff in a separate bag to spare them the effort.

some municipalities also recycle textiles. some animal shelters accept rags for pet bedding. there are textile artists who use fabric scraps in their work.

http://www.unt.edu/northtexan/archives/p00/duds.htm is informative.

[bradhicks.livejournal.com]

There was an article about this about a year and a half ago in several newspapers: it turns out that almost none of the clothing that Americans donate to charity gets sold as clothing. The best couple of percent of it get sold in the stores, as a way of advertising "we take used clothing." The rest gets bundled up in giant bales and sold to scrap-fabric recyclers, who shred it, bleach it, and sell it to quite a few industries like the paper-making industry. The charities actually make more money off of the obviously worthless rags than they do off of the wearable clothes, because there's more demand for them and it's less labor-intensive to sell them.

[eeyore-grrl.livejournal.com]

I worked at a domestic violence shelter for a couple of years. I was insulted by some of the things that were donated to us. We really don't want your stuffed animal that is missing an eye -- even though our kids wanted stuffed animals.

and that bag of clothes that your cat shit in, please, don't give it to us!

so, yeah, i'm with you.

[reannon.livejournal.com]

It depends on the extent of the damage. There are items that I could not repair that they might be able to. A ripped T-shirt should be thrown away. But if they can get that drawer fixed on the old dresser, they can sell it. Also, as bradhicks points out, they can always recycle it and get cash. Worst comes to worst, they probably need rags much more than I do.

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

As bradhicks points out, there is more money to be made recycling than resale. Just be certain to donate to someone that recycles.

Locally, we have some charities that maintain storefronts to sell used stuff. Usually the better stuff. I think they recycle also. It is kind to separate things for them beforehand.

See?

[leenoox.livejournal.com]

The people who "have an explanation" teach me something every time. :-)

[beckyzoole.livejournal.com]

If you're donating to an organization that wants to give the clothing directly to the poor, then you're right, don't give anything raggedy.

But if you're giving to Goodwill or to the Salvation Army, they make a lot of money from recycling the raggedy clothes. They sell them to recyclers to use for making high-quality paper -- pretty cool!

Also, some organizations use broken and raggedy stuff for training purposes.

So I try to actually throw out as little as possible.

[lil-mischif.livejournal.com]

That's really a mostly no. If it's a valuable thing, collectible or some such, then it might be worth donating. Though if it's valuable, regardless of condition, it should probably be put on E-Bay. The poor folks at the place of donation will probably still throw the item out. They can not be expected to know it's value.