Ways to Reduce Clothing and Textile Waste

An estimated amount of £140 million worth of clothing is what goes into landfills every year. When people think of pollution, they only think about carbon dioxide emissions from industrial parks and vehicles. Clothing waste is the second-largest source of environmental contamination in the world. Textile waste in landfills, lead to greenhouse gas emissions and toxins that leach to the surrounding soil and water, polluting the environment. Eighty-five percent of textile waste is not getting to the recyclers because it is not getting sorted at the domestic level. Clearabee is advocating for several initiatives that you can use or take to reduce textile waste during rubbish removal.

1. Slow Fashion Purchases

Fashion comes and goes, so, instead of buying the latest trends every season, you can purchase higher quality clothing that will last longer (the slow-fashion). It might require a change in behavior and lifestyle to buying clothing, but this (the zero-waste fashion) can reduce textile waste in a significant way.

2. Cloth Swapping

Sometimes, a person’s trash can be another person’s treasure. You can organize a clothing exchange among your friends or participate in a community event where people exchange clothing with others. Trading with friends leaves everyone with fresh items for their wardrobe. It allows people to swap and reuse items without spending money or sending anything to the landfill.

3. Clothing Donations

Donate old clothing and stained textiles to charities or non-profit making organizations near you. Donating is a great way to give back to society. Some programs such as Clearabee have scheduled on when clothing is picked at the kurb. Skip boxes are provided for rubbish removal to those who would want to have it in their homes. Clearabee dustmen collect the skip or waste bins from your home using garbage trucks. Once received, they will determine which items can be reused or be recycled. Donating your used clothing is tax-deductible, and you can claim that tax.

4. Resell and Get Rich

Make some extra cash by reselling those beautiful clothing that you no longer want. You can sell to a friend, at a neighborhood consignment shop or through second-hand online clothing stores. You can also gain some extra income by reselling your used clothing to textile merchants for export who sell abroad. One primary market for second-hand clothes is in Africa.

5. Use as Rags

With the popularity of online blogs, search for creative ideas on how to turn your old clothing into something fresh and exciting. You can also come up with your ways on how to convert your unused clothes to wipes that can be used to clean around the house or wash your car, etc. Used clothing can become of use through creativity to items such as aprons, hats, quilts, pajamas, mitts, etc. Turn your unwanted clothing into unique functional products.

6. Repair

There are numerous tutorials available online on how to make simple clothing repairs. For instance, steps on how to do minor repairs such as sewing a button or hem, replacing zippers, or mending holes are available on the internet. Online resources have a lot of creative ideas on how to DIY guidelines. For example, easy steps on how to fix a button or replace zip.

Clothing Rubbish Removal by Clearabee

We offer a variety of solutions that can meet your needs for used clothing rubbish removal. We extend the collection of textile waste using a variety of container vehicles for recycling, hence decreasing the amount of textile that could have ended in the municipal solid waste. We divert approximately ninety percent of what we collect to use, which could otherwise have ended in landfills.