Charity Clothing Pickup, Collecting Clothing for A Cause

Charity Clothing Pickup, Collecting Clothing for A Cause

  • home
  • areas
    • Missouri/Illinois
    • Florida
    • Louisiana
    • Texas
    • Georgia
    • N. Carolina
    • Tennessee
    • Ohio
    • California
  • charities
  • faqs
Schedule a Pickup

Donated to local charities through
your clothing donations*

banner

Missouri/So. Illinois

  • Ways to Donate
    • Door to Door Pickup
    • Drop Box Locations
    • Donation Locations
    • Have a Clothing Drive
  • Accepted Items
  • Non-Profit
  • Hosting a Box
  • What's New
  • After You Donate
  • Contact Us
  • Schedule a Pickup!
  • Confirm / Cancel
  • Charity Login

Environmental Impact

Pounds of Clothing and Textiles Saved From Landfills*



DONATE CLOTHING TODAY!  WE NEED ANY USED CLOTHING OR TEXTILE ITEMS. SCHEDULE A PICKUP AT YOUR HOME, FIND YOUR NEAREST DROP BOX OR SPONSOR A CLOTHING DRIVE TODAY!!

WE TAKE ANY TEXTILE ITEM!

SHARE THE WORD SPONSOR A CLOTHING DRIVE AT YOUR WORK, SCHOOL OR COMMUNITY TO BENEFIT ANY NON PROFIT ORGANIZATION.  WE ALSO OFFER VIRTUAL CLOTHING DRIVES.

Clothing and textile recycling's environmental impact greater than glass and plastics according to US EPA

Print Share

October 7, 2013 - Current levels of clothing and textile recycling are rated as having the the highest level impact on reducing greenhouse gasses, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In its report entitled: Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2011*, the EPA states clothing recycling today has an equivalent impact of removing one million cars from the roads of the United States. That is more than more than five times the impact of recycled yard trimmings, more than four times the impact of glass recycling, more than plastics recycling and it is nearly the same impact as that of recycling aluminum.

According to the EPA, two million tons of clothing are recycled annually. That compares to 19.3 million tons of yard trimmings, 3.17 million tons of glass, 2.65 million tons of plastics and 0.72 million tons of aluminum.

“When comparing the amount of materials recycled to the overall impact on the environment, it is clear clothing and textiles needs to become a top-of-mind recyclable just like aluminum, plastic, glass, and paper. As the international trade association of for-profit clothing recyclers, we have long known of the many positive aspects of clothing recycling. It’s very exciting to see the positive impact our member companies are having confirmed by the EPA,” says Jackie King, Executive Director of the U.S. based Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association (SMART).  

“The message the public needs to hear is ‘Donate, recycle, don’t throw away’ when it comes to their clothing and household textiles,” says SMART President, Lou Buty. “Currently we are only redirecting 15% of clothing and textiles out of the municipal waste stream and into re-use and recycling programs. Local governments need to capitalize on the positive environmental impact of clothing recycling programs not only as it impacts greenhouse gasses, but how it can also extend the lifecycles of landfills.”  

Buty says the EPA estimates 6.5 percent of all materials going into landfills and/or municipal incinerators are clothing and textile products that could have been recycled. SMART says all clothing as long as it is dry and odor-free can be recycled.

“Even if clothing is torn or stained, there are uses for it in the recycling industry,” King says. “SMART encourages the public to be informed about the outlet it is using when recycling clothing. It can go directly to a charity or to a for-profit recycler, it doesn’t matter to us. We just want everyone to think twice before putting a piece of clothing into the garbage.  

SMART is the international trade association of for-profit clothing and textile recycling companies. Visit www.smartasn.org.

Just the Facts

  • An estimated 12.7 million tons of textiles were generated in 2009, or 5.2 percent of total municipal solid waste (MSW) generation.
  • An estimated 13.8 percent of textiles in clothing and footwear and 17.1 percent of items such as sheets and pillowcases was recovered for export or reprocessing in 2009.
  • The recovery rate for all textiles is 14.9 percent in 2009, 1.9 million tons.

That means we still have over 85% that is not recovered! Charity Clothing Pickup is working with non profit organizations and the public to help get this number down.   

We are always looking for new programs to help people redistribute their used textiles.  If you have any suggestions for new collection methods we would love to here from you.  Use the contact us form.

Donate Now

Find a box

home charities faqs corporate home

privacy policy terms and conditions

Charity Clothing Pickup    Collecting Clothing for a Cause *Since November 2010