Every year the United States alone generates over 545 million tons of solid waste material and, EPA states that textile type wastes account for about 5 percent of that. Donating used clothing that we no longer want for recycling or for others to reuse has many benefits such as reducing environmental impacts such as disposing of the waste and using energy to produce new clothing.
Planet Aid is a nonprofit organization that collects clothing and shoes to help protect the environment and support sustainable economic development in many impoverished countries all around the world. They help protect the environment and preserve our natural habitat by helping to reduce the large volume of discarded textiles that entering landfills.
Since 1997, Planet Aid has collected more 160 million pounds of clothes and shoes and has donated more than $70 million to international aid and development projects around the world.
Wearing secondhand clothes is a way of life in places like Africa where up to 80 percent of the population wears used clothing.
Each year, Planet Aid collects approximately 100 million pounds of clothing and shoes from its 13,000 yellow donation bins around the nation – less than .01% of the total textiles collected in the US for reuse or recycling, yet equivalent to the weight of more than 254 Boeing 747 Jumbo Jets.
If we did not divert clothing from our garbage then it would wind up in land fills, this becomes a problem because most clothing items are created with synthetic fibers that do not decompose and the rest that are made from natural fibers like cotton would decompose but release methane gases into the atmosphere in the process.
Just the 100 million pounds of clothing collected by Planet Aid each year would bury 90 football fields 5-feet deep in shirts, shoes and slacks.
Planet Aid clothes donation bins are conveniently located all over the United States in many towns and cities. They offer an online Bin Finder tool to help people find one in their area as well as they have a program that helps people get clothes donation bins setup in their area. Bins are emptied every week, as many times as needed; and even twice per day in some cases.
[ Source: PlanetAid.org]
