The textile industry is one of the biggest in the world, and this is also true in the United States, where Americans eagerly buy many clothes per year. In fact, it is estimated that some women have a different outfit for every day of the month, and some men are not far behind. However, when clothes become worn out and out of fashion, they do not always end up with new owners who would welcome them. Sometimes, instead, clothes are simply thrown away and clog up landfills in staggering amounts, and some clothes are simply recycled into industrial rags or shredded to make stuffing for couches or insulation for walls. However, simple awareness of charity’s benefits and the methods of donating can turn this situation around if enough people make a collective effort to boost used clothing donations, and to donate old clothing is to provide for those in need. Red Cross, in particular, is invested in this work. A Red Cross donation center may be closer than some people realize, and a Red Cross pickup is a great place for any American citizen do drop off old clothes.
Charities and Production Rates
Many clothes are produced every single year, and a lot of them are purchased in countries such as the United States. Around the world, in fact, over 14.3 million tons of old, donated American clothes are sent to families and people in need. It has been estimated that some 70% of American give to charity every single year, and about 3% of all American income is also donated. And with Americans consuming a total of 20 billion garments per year, that figures to 68 garments and seven pairs of shoes per person. With all that clothing on hand, to donate old clothing can be easy.
Among those with a high income who donate, “giving back to the community” has been surveyed as being the chief motivation to donate old clothing around 63% of the time. And for anyone, clothes donations can even be tax deductible as a bonus. With all these clothes and charity-minded people around, it is very possible to boost charity awareness and encouragement to make sure that ever higher percentages of old clothes are donated to Red Cross pickup and similar charities instead of simply thrown away. It has been determined by the EPA that the4 average American throws away 10 pounds of clothes per year, but that number may be driven down.
Donate Old Clothing
An adult or teenager American can easily get started on donation work. A person can first gather up all clothes and shoes that he or she owns from across the house and assemble them into one big pile on the floor, allowing the person to create an all-in-one, comprehensive inventory of what clothes are owned. At this point, a person can start picking through the clothes one by one and determining if each one is desirable and necessary (in which case it is kept) or if the article is worn out, redundant, or out of style. In the latter case, a piece of clothing or pair of shoes is assigned to the “donate” pile. The kept clothes are then returned to the person’s closets and dressers (which results in a streamlined wardrobe as a bonus) and the clothes to be donated are gathered into bags or boxes for ease of transport.
Once this division is settled, the person can search for “Red Cross clothing pickup nearby” or “Red Cross Donation center near me” or anything similar to find any brand of charity pickup center nearby, complete with the address, pictures, and driving instructions. The person may then drive to that place and follow any additional directions on site, then deposit all clothes for charity. To donate old clothing, in short, is a matter of knowing what clothes are unwanted, then finding the right place to deposit them instead of simply throwing them away.