Used Clothing Donation for Reuse and Recycling

Really? Old clothes into furniture? I could dig having a couch made entirely out of "lovely lady lacies." A love seat, perhaps.

85% doesn't surprise me. I once volunteered with some friends at "Double Take" - Yonge Street Mission's used clothing store on Gerrard just east of Parliament. Our only job was to 'push back' the enormous mountain of clothing in the back room so that more floor space could be made for the endless supply of used clothing coming in each day.

Talk about an embarrassment of riches...

I volunteer at a tiny thrift store and to me 85% sounds high but not totally unbelievable. We have three bins - one for donations coming in, one for garbage going out and one for donations which are unsuitable for our store but may be useful to organisations who collect for developing countries or disaster-relief, etc. Unfortunately I'm skeptical about how much of the latter actually goes anywhere useful vs. ending up in the trash.

The garbage and relief bins are always more full than what we take in to the store to sell. Always.

People go to thrift stores to find bargains in great shape and although people who donate their wares have good intentions, most items that get donated have stains or rips or armpit rot and we just can't put it out.

I love the idea of recycling clothing into furniture, mattresses, etc...

I'd like to see an audit done on all of these purported clothing recyclers. from what I understand the vast majority of donated clothes are sold to brokers who ship them overseas for resale in third world countries.

Joe: Something like this? http://www.pantalaine.com/dress.html ;P

does anyone know of a clothing recyle(er) that takes material form the clothes that is not saleable... is it shreaded and turned into something else?\thanks Judy

85% sounds about right to me, but perhaps not for the reason you might think. Decades ago when I was a kid, Goodwill and Salvation Army and other missions had truly needy people who needed clothing, any serviceable clothing. I invite anyone to try to donate what I call "car-washing clothes" (i.e. they are functional but not suitable for 'polite company')to these organizations today. IF they are accepted, they will be thrown away. Even international 'relief' organizations do not accept or actively discourage donations of any used clothing or any actual items and instead encourage cash donations. I feel really terrible about throwing away an item of clothing that could still be used by someone who is struggling to just be clothed - but that is really my only option except for cutting them up for rags to use myself. I second Judy - if anyone knows of a fabric recycler, that seems like the only viable option. I know back in the day there used to be such things as 'rag' collections - the rag quality clothing being turned into rags and resold or shredded and used to make cheap fabric for non-clothing uses. I don't even know where to start looking for something like that - and I have bags and bags of such clothing that I am currently cleaning out of my closets.