Burn your old clothes, don't recycle them

I'm not sure this is a result of charity shop clothes, this is most likely down to the clothes collected by the companies that send the plastic bags through the letterbox asking for donations. If you read the label, they are legally obliged to state that these clothes are actually being sold, not given away for free.

It's only natural that a business will want the best of the bunch for their shops/stalls at the point of sale in the final destination.

This is why I throw those bags straight in the bin.
 
tbh when i use a clothes bank its just a convenient way to get rid as they are in supermarket car parks ,but the only clothes i buy new is (are?) walking gear ,bought 5 linen shirts last year in a charity shop for afew quid each like new and worth hundreds new ,
 
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You might as well burn unused clothes. Just about every clothing manufacturer does it with unsold stock to inflate their exclusivity through scarcity. I think Nike and Burberry where two of the big names a few years ago that were called out for that. And some big watch and jewellery conglomerate destroyed half a billion dollars worth of watches over the space of two years.

The fashion industry is one of the worst polluters on the planet. But destroying perfectly good **** is first class scumbaggery.
 
Generally it is probably best to burn unwanted plastic anyway (And modern clothes are mostly plastic) the long term consequences of not doing so are likely to be far worse than the local short term pollution that might arise from the burning.

(Recycled plastic often ends up in cheap clothing, microfibres from which end up in the water/sea)
 
FoxEye said:
They interviewed a Ghanaian chap who said they only want nice clothes, nothing faded, nothing with any wear in it, because they are running a business and only want stuff that sells well. M&S Luxury range is borderline OK, and definitely nothing from Primark or Top Man.
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Of course the Ghanaian people don't want that **** - Most of it was probably made there in the first place! Why would they want it back, and in tatty, used condition at that?

Actually, to be fair, Ghana also has quite a big designer fashion scene. I'm not into such things myself, but even I know some of their designer names.
 
jsmoke said:
It's taken billions and billions to get to this stage.
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Africa is a cesspit, they have swallowed nearly a trillion in the last few decades and still looks like a cesspit, the whole of Africa is a lost cause and if we all stopped sending money i doubt it make any difference at all.
 
FoxEye said:
None of that makes giving your old clothes to a charity shop a better thing to do than burning it.

All that does is highlight how bent most of that continent is.

And yes I'm well aware of the corruption. I can read. As I'm sure are the charities themselves. I'm sure they are capable of operating within the system.

You still must assume extreme levels of incompetence on their part to assume that the clothing cannot be reaching the people who "need" it - if such a need exists.

The alternative is that the BBC are correct and we've literally saturated Ghana with more clothing than they have a clue what to do with.

But either way giving our clothes to the charity shops is a waste of time - where the charities are not seeking to redistribute it in this country but instead ship it off to Ghana.
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I worked for quite a few years in London, shipping to Africa, and then a few years in African exporting and importing.

The second hand clothing trade is one of the lowest value commodities that is shipped in continuers (i.e. not bulk). Back in the late 90s - early 00s, charities would collect the clothing and immediately sell on 95%+ of it. What they didn't sell (football tops were v popular) may end up being shipped on elsewhere. Everything else would be sorted, normally in Belgium, into what could be sold / distributed in Africa and the Middle East (cheap shipping destinations) and what would be recycled into something else (jeans make great tea towels).

The point is, that the charity involvement largely ended before the majority of goods left Europe. The remainder was all capitalism in action, albeit run on fractional margins.
 
Orionaut said:
Generally it is probably best to burn unwanted plastic anyway (And modern clothes are mostly plastic) the long term consequences of not doing so are likely to be far worse than the local short term pollution that might arise from the burning.

(Recycled plastic often ends up in cheap clothing, microfibres from which end up in the water/sea)
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Hmm you know you may be right. I wonder are the fumes toxic and by how much. As in can Earth deal with them? She can deal with Bushfire so burning is not as much an issue as toxic clothing. Patagonia warn people thier clothes are toxic. The fibres in every washing cycle or wear spread the plastics into the marine enviroment and in the perfectly small size to be digested by the creature at the bottom of the food pyramid. So this now goes all the way up maybe to your fish dinner.


I reckon i would burn them, In one of those plants that capture and filter the outtake. At least you can get scienctific data on the smoke. Tell me how can you document what happens when small animals eat plastic? Thats some study i think they are yet to do the big one and tell us all the results.
 
There is a warehouse near to me that supply donations to certain cancer charity shops, who take anything, clothes, furniture, appliances etc, out there front is a huge waste bin, anything they don't sell in their charity shops go back to the warehouse and then put in the bin to be dumped.
Sad that they are so picky.
 
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