Posted on 05/11/2020 8:32:16 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
A once-virtuous cycle is breaking down. What now?
For decades, the donation bin has offered consumers in rich countries a guilt-free way to unload their old clothing. In a virtuous and profitable cycle, a global network of traders would collect these garments, grade them, and transport them around the world to be recycled, worn again, or turned into rags and stuffing.
Now that cycle is breaking down. Fashion trends are accelerating, new clothes are becoming as cheap as used ones, and poor countries are turning their backs on the secondhand trade. Without significant changes in the way that clothes are made and marketed, this could add up to an environmental disaster in the making.
Nobody is more alert to this shift than the roughly 200 businesses devoted to recycling clothes into yarn and blankets in Panipat, India. Located 55 miles north of Delhi, the dusty city of 450,000 has served as the world's largest recycler of woolen garments for at least two decades, becoming a crucial outlet for the $4 billion used-clothing trade.
Panipat's mills specialize in a cloth known as shoddy, which is made from low-quality yarn recycled from woolen garments. Much of what they produce is used to make cheap blankets for disaster-relief operations. It's been a good business: At its peak in the early 2010s, Panipat's shoddy manufacturers could make 100,000 blankets a day, accounting for 90 percent of the relief-blanket market.
In the early 2000s, though, cash-flush Chinese manufacturers began using modern mills that could produce many times more blankets per day than Panipat's, and in a wider variety of colors. Ramesh Goyal, the general manager of Ramesh Woolen Mills, told me that Chinese manufacturing has become so efficient that a new polar fleece blanket costs a mere $2.50 retail -- compared to $2.00 for a recycled blanket. This has made China the preferred manufacturer of relief blankets worldwide, costing Panipat most of its export market.
So Panipat is changing. In 2013, nobody in town made new fleece blankets. Today, about 50 mills do. Ramesh Woolen Mills added a Chinese-built line in 2016, and thereby boosted its production from 7,000 kilograms a day to 12,000, two-thirds of which is polar fleece. Consumers appreciate the quality, variety and fast production times.
But what's good for Panipat and its customers is bad news for donors and the environment. Even if Panipat were producing shoddy at its peak, it probably couldn't manage the growing flood of used clothing entering the market in search of a second life. Between 2000 and 2015, global clothing production doubled, while the average number of times that a garment was worn before disposal declined by 36 percent. In China, it declined by 70 percent.
The rise of "fast fashion" is thus creating a bleak scenario: The tide of secondhand clothes keeps growing even as the markets to reuse them are disappearing. From an environmental standpoint, that's a big problem. Already, the textile industry accounts for more greenhouse-gas emissions than all international flights and maritime shipping combined; as recycling markets break down, its contribution could soar.
The good news is that nobody has a bigger incentive to address this problem than the industry itself. By raising temperatures and intensifying droughts, climate change could substantially reduce cotton yields and thus make garment production less predictable and far more expensive. Industry executives are clearly concerned.
The question is what to do about it. Some brands, such Hennes & Mauritz AB (better known as H&M) and Patagonia Inc., are experimenting with new fibers made from recycled material, which could help. But longer-term, the industry will have to try to refocus consumers on durability and quality -- and charge accordingly. Ways to do this include offering warranties on clothing and making tags that inform consumers of a product's expected lifespan. To satiate the hunger for fast fashion, meanwhile, brands might also explore subscription-based fashion rental businesses -- such as China's YCloset -- or other more sustainable models.
None of these options can replace Panipat and the other mill towns that once transformed rich people's rags into cheap clothes for the poor. But, like it or not, that era is coming to an end. Now the challenge is to stitch together a new set of solutions.
Also, I buy second hand as much as I can, but the author is correct in that new clothes are now almost as cheap to buy as used clothing as places like Goodwill and St. Vincent's seem to be RAISING their prices these days.
I have no easy answer, but it makes me think about my 'consumer' habits, for sure.
In memory of jerry stiller who passed today and old clothing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVRfHWJGLyA
Goodwill here in L.A removed the fitting rooms which is stupid. It all came about bec. homeless idiots would steal clothes so to avoid this crap, they removed the fitting rooms. So why even bother scouting for pants when you cant even try them on?
They may come back because of people having lost jobs.
I’ve not donated clothing for at least a decade. I burn my old clothes. It keeps people employed.
Oh, no! I LOVED Jerry! I’m really bummed to hear this. :(
I do. All the time. Some of my best stuff is from thrift and Goodwill stores in nice areas.
The coronavirus pandemic hoax only happened because Donald Trump is President.
80,000 Americans died of the flu in the winter of 2018 and nobody blinked because Chuck Todd fake news wasn’t celebrating every single death.
I’m the same way. I hate throwing things into the landfill, and I cycle everything through the nearest Goodwill. I have four sacks of clothes in my closet just waiting for this to be over so I can donate again.
How does that work? I’m confused.
What does that have to do with recycled clothing? LOL!
Good thing I liquidated half my closet after Hurricane Harvey even though I didn’t want the tax deduction. Showing off the back of my SUV filled with bags of old shirts, t-shirts, pants and stuff won me a lot of “good citizen” points with the neighbors. The recipients were people who had been flooded out of their homes so they had no clothes but the ones on their backs.
I liquidated most of the rest and moved to Panama. Here, as in most of Latin America, the people wear t-shirts, blouses and caps with words in English even though they don’t speak English. It’s just the fashion here to wear something that says “Miami” or “New York” or “California” or “Vegas” like we might wear something that says “Paris” even though we’ve never been there. It’s pretty amusing.
John Edwards Daddy worked in a mill.
I’ve been seeing a TV ad in which a young black woman talks about how much money she’s making by selling her used clothes. That ad has led to some ribald humor on my part.
I have a huge donation pile going, too. Funny how being trapped indoors with all of your STUFF makes you want to shed a lot of said STUFF!
I think the pickings at Goodwill, etc. will be FABULOUS later this summer once it’s all sorted and put back up for sale. ;)
goodwill and the Starvation Army have been raising their prices but so far St Vincent de Paul has kept used stuff affordable.
so far, anyway.
and we always buy as much stuff as we can at any of these charity thrift stores. SOME older things were made better than some of the new junque. Also, it is, well, thrifty.. why pay $40 for something you can get for $6 or $7? Mostly, however, we like the idea that our donations (lots of them, thankfully!) and also our purchases help keep these places in operation.. as they do help a lot of people
I never give worn-out clothes to Goodwill. I give them good stuff that I never wear.
Very interesting article for anyone with an interest in marketing. Thanks.
I didn’t know the term “Shoddy” was in reference to a real material. I always thought it was a term of judgement, as in
Shoddy = Cheap or something of poor construction.
I too have noticed that many Goodwills are selling items at market rates or near the same of retail outlets.
Less common is seeing true value or extreme markdowns,, unless the merchandise is rather unattractive.That is a change.
Same story with most shoes. I have shoes where I want the man-made soles replaced, but I want to keep the top leather since it is already stretched to conform to my feet.
That kind of a material replacement is usually far more expensive vs just buying a new pair of shoes, and dealing with the painful breaking in period as usual. I have very large and very wide feet. I’m a short guy with size 14 EEEE feet.
My fashion sense has never changed. I essentially wear the same clothes that I did 40 years ago, only thing that has changed has been the size (and over the last five years that has steadily been down). All of the typical clothing donation points are shuttered at the moment, but I had a boat load of clothes that no longer fit. I persisted and found a church that is still taking donations and they will distribute the clothes to poor folks in need.
Goodwill donation sites are opening back up again.
Check their website to see if your local center is one of them.
We donate to Salvation Army instead so stuff goes to those who need it.
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