Recycling Old Clothes – Making Wiping Rags
If you are bored and stuck at home we challenge you to try recycling old clothes.
We all have some extra time these days with the shutdown due to COVID-19. It’s good for the environment and also your closet and mindset. On average each one of us tosses about 70lbs of clothing out per year.
Make a Game Plan for Recycling Old Clothes
We are going to break down exactly what you can do in several simple to follow steps. Do your part and make sure you donate your used items, and don’t just throw them away. They can create great wiping cloth products like white and colored recycled knit.
- Find anything you aren’t wearing in your closet and drawers and put those clothes into one big pile.
- Sort out the clothes in the pile. If you have any really nice items you can take those directly to a thrift store or even schedule a pick up.
- The rest of your clothes from the pile can be taken to a recycling bin. You can look online to locate one of these bins or drop boxes – often they are bright blue.
- Items that are stained, ripped, missing buttons or have broken zippers can be recycled. Please don’t donate any items that are wet or moldy.
So what happens with recycled old clothes?
- Close to 95% of what is donated can be recycled.
- Little less than half is sold in second hand stores around the world.
- A good portion are used to make wiping rags and resold. This is known as down cycling. Those t-shirts are made into color and recycled white knit wiping cloths. Companies like A&A Wiping Cloth use them to resell to all sort of industries throughout the United States.
- The rest of donated textiles are recycled – broken down into their basic fiber components – before being remanufactured into new products. Insulation for your home, pet bedding and much more are created from these fibers.
Recycling Old Clothes – Making Wiping Rags
If you are bored and stuck at home we challenge you to try recycling old clothes.
We all have some extra time these days with the shutdown due to COVID-19. It’s good for the environment and also your closet and mindset. On average each one of us tosses about 70lbs of clothing out per year.
Make a Game Plan for Recycling Old Clothes
We are going to break down exactly what you can do in several simple to follow steps. Do your part and make sure you donate your used items, and don’t just throw them away. They can create great wiping cloth products like white and colored recycled knit.
- Find anything you aren’t wearing in your closet and drawers and put those clothes into one big pile.
- Sort out the clothes in the pile. If you have any really nice items you can take those directly to a thrift store or even schedule a pick up.
- The rest of your clothes from the pile can be taken to a recycling bin. You can look online to locate one of these bins or drop boxes – often they are bright blue.
- Items that are stained, ripped, missing buttons or have broken zippers can be recycled. Please don’t donate any items that are wet or moldy.
So what happens with recycled old clothes?
- Close to 95% of what is donated can be recycled.
- Little less than half is sold in second hand stores around the world.
- A good portion are used to make wiping rags and resold. This is known as down cycling. Those t-shirts are made into color and recycled white knit wiping cloths. Companies like A&A Wiping Cloth use them to resell to all sort of industries throughout the United States.
- The rest of donated textiles are recycled – broken down into their basic fiber components – before being remanufactured into new products. Insulation for your home, pet bedding and much more are created from these fibers.