Free Republic

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...

Where once a cavernous warehouse hummed with conveyor belts moving tens of thousands of donated items, and where a busy thrift store operated, there is now silence...