I just noticed that this book is written by the very author who is being interviewed on the linked podcast. I had meant to look up his book and here it is. Thanks!
I hadn’t clicked on the podcast. I’ll give it a listen.
" The first place donated clothing ends up is at the clothing recycling bin or center. These clothing recycling bins are picked up and dropped off at the local distribution plant. At the processing plant, everything is placed on a conveyor belts, I mean everything. This includes everything that was donated, clothing, accessories, household goods, sheets, textiles etc. These processing plants usually have graders or pullers if you will, that pull out modern items that will be sold in the local Salvation Army Thrift Stores , or whatever thrift store the processing plant supplies. Just in case you are wondering, this is not the Vintage Clothing, this clothing is going to thrift stores, so the puller in most cases are looking for modern or contemporary clothes, not old stuff.
These processing centers only use 5% of the clothing that they process, the rest of the clothing is moved on. After the pullers at the processing plant are done pulling out items for the local thrift stores, the rest of the clothing is put into large containers, or bales and sold by the pound to under privileged countries or to Rag Houses."
they make up shirts, hats, etc. for both teams for the super bowl, world series, etc. The stuff for the losing team is mostly sent overseas.
I have not bought a new shirt in 20 years. First thing to go during a breakup to Goodwill is the ex’s cloths and golf clubs. I find Polo and Tommy Bahama for 1/20 the retail price, some still with tags.
Guy I work with takes donated cloths and things sends them back home to the Phillipines. He is treated like a king when he returns home.
When Mexicans return home the vehicle is usually packed with stuff we throw away. Pots and pans, old shoes, computers that need a little repair. Our trash is valuable.
For the thrift stores, yes. For the true collectors*, no. For the collector’s market, no.
*I define true collectors as those who are looking for items to add to their personal collection, not buy and resell. It becomes a vicious circle when the thrift stores sell at market prices that primarily resellers buy, taking them out of the local and worldwide market. Then the resellers, sell them at even higher prices, keeping them out of the hand of the “true collectors” unable to unwilling to pay the higher prices. Rinse and repeat people make donations of high valued collectibles either unknowingly or purposely to help out the thrift stores.
A couple of years ago, there was a huge uproar when a group of videogame store employees went to an annual (maybe semi-annual) church bazaar. They literally swept the tables clean of all the games and consoles into the bins they brought with them. They then started sorting through their bins in the church, keeping everything resellable for a profit and put the meager remains back on the table.To top it off, they then posted pics of their haul on Facebook, laughing at those they beat out.
The church’s response was (correctly) that they got the money they expected from the debacle and that was fine with them. I don’t know how the next sale went.
EVERYTHING is recyclable if there’s money to be made from it. Don’t know what the current situation is, but in 2018 China seriously reduced the amount of plastic from the U.S. they would accept and that caused a big issue as no State wanted to take another States trash.
If you have Amazon Prime, I highly recommend watching Plastic China, a pseudo-documentary about one family’s struggle to survive on the lowest tier of Chinese Society. Picturing the little girl Ji Yie washing and combing her hair in the stream of water littered with our plastic is heartbreaking!
There are downloadable apps where you can scan bar codes and ISBNs on books and determine their value in various areas. (I personally don’t do this.) We don’t mind if someone comes into our town’s library bookstores and does it, as long as they pay for them, but an adjoining town which has freestanding book sales twice a year decided to institute the following rules for scanners:
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Opening night only, which is also limited to Friends of the Library
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$20 fee and a wristband
Since doing that, they haven’t had to call the police when people got into fights about potentially valuable books - and for the most part, bibliophiles weren’t doing this! They were people hired by owners in other cities to look for the good stuff, and toss the bad stuff aside (literally!)
As for that church bazaar, here’s the advice I would give them. In the future, I’d let them in an hour ahead of opening time, or the night before, and let them get what they want. They would have what they want, the church would have its money, and they wouldn’t make a scene either. When I lived in this city before and my town had the twice-a-year sales, they had an advance sale for dealers only. They always did very well there.
p.s. I know from my own Amazon store that people buy the weirdest stuff, or not buy the weirdest stuff. A current #1 best-seller at a rummage sale, part of the $1-a-bag sale at the end because nobody else wanted it first? BTDT! For that matter, 30 years ago, my then-boyfriend who owned a record store never failed to be amazed at what would sell.
Again that’s fine for the church, but only feeds into the few getting the good stuff and artificially jacking games, consoles and other collectible prices sky high.
To me, a local thrift shop or charitable bazaar should be a community event, with everyone sharing the bargains that can be found.
Maybe times have changed and the people that were at the store were somewhat the elite of video collectors, but in the 80’s, there was a rare sale at a local Laserdisc store. There were a few dozen people in the store, shoulder to shoulder browsing through the bins, when the power suddenly went off. No one panicked and just kept browsing as if nothing had happened with what little light there was. My girlfriend had a small flashlight and it was slowly passed around if someone saw something they were really interested in. A few people walked to the opening of the store (which was in a small warehouse) and stopped inside the doorway with disc in hand viewing in the daylight. The power was off about 20-30 minutes and the owner thanked everyone for being so calm and courteous.
I’m afraid those days are likely long gone. With all the avenues for selling stuff now, like ebay, craigslist, amazon, facebook, conventions, etc., many people make their living selling used stuff. Those people aren’t going to step back and leave stuff on the shelves so a local person can score a unique find. Back in the 80’s it was a lot of time and effort to try and sell used stuff (e.g. classifieds, garage sales, flea markets), so it didn’t really make sense to pick through thrift stores for re-sellable merchandise. And back then, the person had to know the market to know what could even be resold in the first place. But now with the internet and UPC scanners, the picker doesn’t have to know anything about the market. Now they can just scan random items to see if the ebay price is more than the store price. The net result of all these market efficiencies is that it’s going to be a lot less likely to get a great deal at a thrift store.
I am unclear on why so little is recycled. The article mentions weeding out mildewed clothing early so it doesn’t spoil entire batches, but that isn’t that much. Is the bulk of the clothing incinerated or landfilled because of lack of demand for the recycled product, or is it not recyclable for some reason?
Only 28% of people donate used clothing,according to The Clothes You Donate Don't Always End Up on People's Backs, while the other 72% just throw it all away.
Personally, the clothes I buy are relatively inexpensive, and I wear them until there are fairly visible signs of wear. I very much doubt it would sell in a thrift store. If others are like me, that may be why people are throwing out clothes.
This looks like a fascinating read. Thank you!
I had assumed the denominator was of clothes donated, but on closer reading, it appears your interpretation is correct. Thank you.
I certainly don’t donate my used underwear. That, I throw away.
Other clothing that won’t be resalable (holes, stains, etc.) goes to my friend who makes crocheted stuffed animals. That’s what she uses for stuffing, so the whole thing is machine washable.
One of the issues is that much of the cloth is too cheap/thin/synthetic to be used for rags.
I suspect that another reason is that a lot of people just don’t care what happens to the clothes they are getting rid of. They don’t even know where to go to give the clothes to charity. If they do know, they don’t consider it worth their time to drive there.
…and the next time this organization has a sale, the video games are unsold because nobody who wanted them stopped by…