As one might expect, the textiles industry is one of the largest in the entire world, and it’s responsible for making the world’s supply of clothes, bedding, linens, and more. Everyone needs clothes to wear, after all, and the United States in particular is the world’s biggest consumer and producer alike of these clothes. Every year, the massive American clothing industry grows in size, and today, the average American consumer purchases twice as many clothes as they did just 20 years ago.
Many American, in fact, own more clothes or shoes than they intend to wear, and these old clothes are a fine choice to send to used clothing donations sites such as American Red Cross donations centers. To donate old clothing as American Red Cross donations sites is to take part in a charitable and humanitarian effort, and it’s always appreciated. A person can even look up american red cross donations sites near me” if they don’t already know such a place, and include their ZIP code or their city’s name to further refine the search if they need to. What is there to know about making American Red Cross donations?
Rates of Donations VS Waste
The bad news in all this is that today, textiles rank poorly among recyclable materials such as steel, paper, wood, plastic, and glass. The United States produces a vast quantity of clothing per year, but a lot is discarded, too, with millions of tons of old textiles going to landfills every year (rather than donations sites). Estimates say that only about 15% of old clothes are recycled or donated, and the rest are discarded. The average American discards around 70 pounds of old textiles per year, in fact, and that adds up fast. Some old clothes are recycled and shredded to make industrial rags or furniture stuffing, but many would argue that humanitarian charity is a better route to take for those old clothes.
The good news is that Americans have also demonstrated a healthy charitable spirit, and every year, over 90% of Americans donate to charity one way or another. They give away clothes, bedding, kids’ toys, books, food, and even a percentage of their income to charities and donations centers every year, especially around the winter holiday time for the spirit of Christmas and Hanukkah. Many wealthier donors have said that they feel a commitment to “give back to the community” when they donate. Despite the textiles industry’s poor reclamation rate, many clothes are indeed donated like this, and some are shipped globally to foreign communities in need. Thus, improving textiles’ poor reclamation rate may a matter of pushing the existing charitable spirit to new heights. Best of all, nearly any American household (aside from impoverished ones who receive the donations) may have something to give.
Donations Made Easy
Most American households have more clothes and personal accessories than the people living there need or intend to use, so all those excess clothes are a fine choice for donations. To begin this process, a household’s members may gather all owned clothes and personal accessories from across the house and gather it all into a single large pile to act as a convenient inventory. After all, clothes tend to scatter across the house over time, making it difficult to take proper stock of what is owned.
With everything assembled like this, the household’s members may now start sorting through all the clothes and accessories and decide what should be kept versus what they can donate. Clothes to be donated may be old and worn out, out of fashion, redundant, or otherwise not desired. These old clothes and shoes can be sorted into boxes or bags for easy transport. When this is done, the total wardrobe may in fact be only half or even a third of its original size in some cases. Now, the donor can look up local charity sites if they don’t already know one. Red Cross, for example, has locations across the United States which are open 24 hours a day, each day of the year. Volunteer staff at these locations are always ready and willing to accept donations of all sorts. Donors may even get a tax rebate form for the value of all of their donated items.