It might give you a warm and fuzzy feeling every time you head to a donation bin to drop off an old bag of clothes. But a lot of those clothes don't end up being reused. A study from the National Institute of Standards and Technology found only 15% of clothes and other textiles are reused or recycled. The other 85% end up in the trash. There are new efforts now to fix this.
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00:00 It might give you a warm and fuzzy feeling
00:02 every time you head down to a donation bin
00:04 to drop off a bag of old clothing,
00:06 but a lot of those clothes
00:07 don't actually end up being reused.
00:10 There are new efforts now to fix this.
00:12 Here's how bad the issue has gotten.
00:14 A study from the National Institute of Standards
00:17 and Technology found only 15% of clothes
00:20 and other textiles are reused or recycled.
00:23 The other 85% end up in the trash.
00:26 Fast fashion is a big part of the reason.
00:28 It's clothing that's made quickly and cheaply,
00:31 but it's not very durable and it's hard to recycle.
00:34 Just ask Justin Stockdale from EcoCycle in Boulder, Colorado.
00:38 Historically, we worked with a partner
00:40 who was a rag manufacturer.
00:42 So it was a company that took waste textiles,
00:44 converted them into rags.
00:46 But it seems like over the years,
00:47 as industry has declined in the US
00:49 and manufacturing has declined in the US,
00:52 the demand for rags has declined along with it.
00:54 So there are fewer and fewer rag manufacturers out there.
00:57 If there is no sort of remanufacturing,
01:00 true recycling demand, where does this stuff go?
01:04 That's why some California lawmakers are working on a bill
01:07 to create an extended producer responsibility program
01:10 for textiles.
01:11 It would require clothing makers
01:13 to help set up free collection sites
01:15 where clothes in good shape are sent to nonprofits,
01:18 those in fair shape are repaired,
01:19 and those in poor shape are broken down into raw materials
01:22 and then made into new textiles.
01:24 You know, EPR systems are only as good as their design,
01:28 and they're only as good, and the design only works
01:31 if all of the participants have a clear understanding
01:33 and a set of incentives to participate fully.
01:35 But in California, it would be a first-in-the-nation approach
01:40 and that makes it, I think,
01:41 all the more important to design it well.
01:43 The potential program is still years off,
01:45 but Senator Josh Newman hopes California could serve
01:48 as a model for other states.
01:50 But here's what you can be doing now.
01:52 Recognizing that your decision matters,
01:53 recognizing that your both consumer choice matters,
01:56 where you take things for disposal matters,
01:58 where you donate things, how you donate things matters.
02:01 NIST says to take your good condition clothing
02:04 to a charity and your ratty ones
02:05 to a textile recycling program.
02:07 For other tips, visit the blog post
02:09 by scanning the QR code on your screen.