If you’re like most people in the United States, you have a lot of clothing, likely more than you know what to do with. After all, clothing consumption has more than doubled over the past couple of decades and the average person now consumes nearly 70 garments and seven pairs of shoes over the course of just one single year. This means that up to 20 billion garments in total will be consumed in this same span of time – and that’s just here in the United States alone, let alone elsewhere in the world. To put things in perspective, the average American woman of today now has, on average, a full 30 different outfits, one for just about every single day of the month. About a century ago, however, the average number of outfits was only just nine.
Therefore, cleaning out your closet and getting rid of some articles of clothing, if only just a few, is likely to be quite hugely beneficial to the vast array of people. After all, if you live in one to two season climate and there are pieces of clothing that you have not worn for more than half of a year, they are likely just taking up space and can easily be gotten rid of. The same can be said for clothing that no longer fits you as well, be it too small or too large. Clothing you simply don’t like anymore should also, as you might have already guessed, be gotten rid of.
Unfortunately, far too much of this clothing is simply thrown into the trash, with the average person in the United States disposing of up to ten pounds of clothing in this way over the course of a mere 12 months or so, a single year. But what’s the better option? Simply put: charitable clothing donations. Used clothing donations can be easily dropped off at a Red Cross donation center, of which there are many found all throughout the country. And to donate clothes to a Red Cross donation center is to help out a great many people, as the typical Red Cross donation center will be used to directly help American Red Cross centers all throughout the country.
These American Red Cross Centers do a lot of hard work as well. After all, they are all open every single hour of the day and every single day of the week, including major holidays. And they don’t just provide the used clothes that have been dropped off at the nearest Red Cross donation center. In addition to this clothing, Red Cross centers will also provide everything from blood to blankets to shelter and food. Therefore, it is clear to see that they can use as many donations (of all kinds) as they can get.
In addition to helping those in your community who are in need, donating your used clothing to a Red Cross donation center is something that will help the environment as well. After all, textile waste is far too high all around the world – and particularly here in the United States. Fortunately, donating used clothing to a place like the typical Red Cross donation center can most certainly help. Already, up to 15% of all old clothing is donated instead of simply being discarded, but this is still something that can most certainly be improved upon.
After all, nearly 100% of all old textile products can be donated instead of simply just being thrown away and sent into a landfill. Even if they are not able to be used for their original purpose, old textiles such as clothing can be used in many other ways as well. For one thing, they can be used to make factory rags that can then be used for a considerable amount of time. In addition to this, old clothing and other such used textiles can even serve as the stuffing for varying types of furniture. This means that they are not simply just wasted bu are instead being reused in a purposeful and important way.
At the end of the day you should always donate your old clothing to a Red Cross donation center, as it’ll be more than worth it.
