Tuesday, 26 March 2024
    Donations end up in landfill
    01
    Jun
    010621, Charity

    Donations end up in landfill

    Think putting unwanted clothes in a charity bin is a good deed? Few realise about 90 per cent of donations will never end up in an op shop, the Mandurah Mail reports.

    So where do you take your old pants you no longer need?

    If you’re clearing out your wardrobe and think your ripped acid wash jeans or rastafarian kaftan need a better home, a charity bin or op-shop are probably not the best solutions.

    What most people don’t realise, according to experts, is that a mere 10 per cent of donated clothing actually ends up for sale in a thrift shop so good intentions are really just rubbish.

    An Australian Bureau of Statistics report found about 800,000 tonnes of textile, leather and rubber waste was discarded in the 2018-19 financial year, with just under 75 per cent sent directly to the tip – and these figures did not include the clothing and textile waste sent overseas.

    “A lot of people donate to charity thinking it’s a good thing to do and it is good, but more people donate than will buy so there’s a supply and demand difference,” said Green Connect general manager Kylie Flament. “There are millions of items of clothes, right here in the Illawarra, without a home.”

    “Some things just don’t move … they could be in great condition but no-one wants it – we can’t hold stock forever, there’s just too much of it,” she said. “We have a problem in Australia, I think we’re one of the top two or three countries in terms of how many kilos of clothes are bought every year and therefore have to go somewhere – they don’t disappear. Most of them are not compostable, so our clothing discards are enormous.”

    FULL STORY

    Op shops, charity bins not the only solution to getting rid of clothes (Mandural Mail)

    PHOTO

    Tom Fisk / Pexels