How Online Shopping Adds to the Global Problem of Abandoned Clothes – By Laura Hautala (CNET) / February 17, 2022
Your used clothes might go straight in the dump, or they might travel the world before being burned in an open fire. Here’s why.
A few years ago, I volunteered at a local Saint Vincent de Paul day center, whose clients included many people living on the streets nearby. My job was to sort through a mountain of donated clothes, looking for vibrant blouses, tailored coats and other gems that would help struggling people served by the charity.
Not every item, however, was worth offering to clients. And those clothes — a stained Gap T-shirt here, a badly ripped pair of pants there — got tossed into a dumpster.
More used clothes are ending up in the garbage. We’re buying more fast fashion, which cycles in and out of style quickly. Even though overall clothing sales fell sharply during the pandemic, e-commerce apparel sales grew steadily. We had to make room for the new stuff, and time stuck at home prompted us to clean out our closets, overwhelming some charities with donations.
