It turns out that people find it difficult to dispose of used clothing. We don’t really want to just put it in the trash, but we can’t put it into the recycle bins, either. In fact, even if the clothing is too torn or stained to be reusable, there are viable options.

Top of the list is Goodwill Industries. I’ve mentioned them before because they have the best recycling programs around. They will accept all textiles, as long as they aren’t wet (so they don’t mildew while they’re being processed) and don’t contain any hazardous materials. Their volunteers can often repair clothing to make it usable again, and they, as well as some other second-hand stores, have developed relationships with various textile recyclers who can deal with the clothing fabrics when the clothing itself is no longer repairable.

The EPA reports that more than 16 million tons of used clothing and textiles go to landfills every year, while only about 2.6 million tons are recycled. That’s happening because folks don’t realize how reusable old clothing of any sort really is. We tend to assume that the stuff is not usable, and just toss it into the trash.

According to Secondary Materials and Recovered Textiles Association (https://www.smartasn.org/), about 45 percent of discarded clothing is reusable. About 30 percent of the rest is used as industrial rags, and 20 percent is processed into fiber that can be used in products like carpet or insulation. Only about five percent is wholly unusable, generally because of contamination, and will end up in a landfill or a waste to energy plant.

The next step, of course, is to reduce the number of items to be discarded or to make them more recyclable when we shop for them. If you do an Internet search on shopping for clothing environmentally, you will find a lot of companies that make those sorts of garments. We do need to be always alert for greenwashing, as we discussed in this column a couple of weeks ago, but if we pay attention to the brand names, and do a little homework on the companies that sell what we like, we can quickly narrow down the field to ones from which we’ll want to buy.

After that, it takes just a little attention to the wearability of what we buy, being willing to wear it more often and for longer periods, and then moving it on to second-hand stores, shelters for the homeless, or one of the many textile recyclers available on the Internet.

One of my grandmother’s favorite expressions was “Use it up, Wear It Out, Make It Do, Or Do Without.” That’s a philosophy that grew out of the great Depression and World War II. It lost favor in the 1950s and 1960s, but it’s time, I think, to bring it back!

The Recycle Bin is a weekly column on what to recycle, what not to recycle, and why, in Brunswick. The public is encouraged to submit questions by email to brunsrecycleinfo@gmail.com. Harry Hopcroft is a member of the Brunswick Recycling and Sustainability Committee. 

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