Who should get your old clothes?
Mary Lhowe in·Ocean State Stories
He could hardly have imagined some
impacts of textiles more than 200 years later:
● A country awash in clothing, driven by
consumerism and marketing surges like fast fashion.
● Overfilled landfills, including plenty of
usable clothing.
● River bays and land polluted with
microscopic plastics from polyester clothing.
● Heavy use of water, electricity, and
chemicals to manufacture clothes.
Starting in the late 1990s and ramping up
since then, Americans have applied their ingenuity to earn profits – and to
help the poor – by collecting and reselling used clothing and other textiles.
Rhode Islanders are familiar with the
multi-colored bins scattered across the landscape inviting people to drop off
used clothing and textiles (bedding, linens, etc.). The names on the bins are
familiar: Big Brothers Big Sisters of Rhode Island, Goodwill Industries,
Salvation Army, St. Vincent de Paul, Kiducation, St. Pauly Textile Inc.,
Upcycle Collaborative, and more.
Collecting and reselling textiles is
competitive and getting more so, with a growing influx of people getting
into the game for profit. They are following the lead of non-profits that have
been collecting and selling textiles for charitable purposes for decades.
Business is so good in this arena now that many charities that operate public donation bins outfit them with GPS trackers because they may be stolen and sometimes repainted and re-purposed by competitors, or even sold as scrap metal.
Leaders of charitable organizations
doing this work say they know of instances where shady operators game the
system by stealing clothes or bins, or, more often, conveying the impression
they are charities when they are not.
In a recent letter to the public, Katje Afonseca, CEO of Big Brothers Bid Sisters of RI, wrote, “Textile recycling is a fascinating, lucrative, often grimy business peppered with all kinds of organizations vying for the second-hand cloth that sits in our homes.”
Afonseca continued, “Most bins and pickup services are operated by for-profit companies [that] will contract with a charity and offer a donation or grant for the use of the charity name. The charity is receiving pennies on the dollar for the clothing and the for-profit is making millions by selling the ‘donations’ overseas.”
She implored readers
to choose wisely when making donations “while supporting programs in our
community that change hundreds of lives for the better.”
Give.com offers advice for people with
clothes to donate:
● Drop-off boxes aren’t invariably
connected with charities. If there’s a phone number on the bin, call it for
information. Be wary of names you don’t know or that seem similar to ones you
do. Some bins belong to for-profit businesses, but that may not be obvious from
the labeling on the bin.
● Not all thrift stores are run to benefit
a charitable cause. While the name of the store may identify the charitable
affiliation, charity-sounding names have been used by for-profit stores with no
connection to charity.
In 2018, according to the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, 11,300,000
tons of textiles were sent to landfills in the United States. Also in 2018,
2,510,000 tons of textiles were recycling in the U.S. The EPA estimates that 85
% of American’s used clothing is simply thrown away.
Another argument for donating and recycling
is that people in underdeveloped countries create clothing resale businesses in
their own towns to help neighbors who need cheap clothes; these stores are
supported by clothing sold in bulk by richer places like the U.S., Canada,
Europe, South Korea, Australia, and Japan.
The price of bulk textiles – which are
shipped in compacted, 1,000-pound cubes — varies based on supply and demand in
a global market. People who do collection and resale in Rhode Island say prices
can vary from 10 cents to 45 cents per pound.
Choosing a Pathway for Good Old Clothes
People are sometimes emotional about
garments that have given them good service over the years. Some donors expect
that a good used coat or pair of boots will move directly from them – at no
charge — onto the back or feet of someone in their own community who can’t
afford to buy new. That direct act of giving can happen, but it is rare. The
journey of used clothing or textiles can take different routes:
● Some charitable organizations sell
donated clothes (and other goods) at low cost to the general public and also
occasionally give clothes to people in need. The cash raised from retail sales
goes to operations and to the service mission of the charity.
● Some charities give some clothes to
people in need and also sell clothing in bulk to global distributors who send
the clothing overseas. The cash raised from bulk sales goes to operations of
the organization, to non-profit partner groups like churches or schools, or to
other charities.
● Some for-profit enterprises sell the
textiles to distributors and also voluntarily give money or services to
charities of their choice.
● Some for-profit enterprises keep their
proceeds. Unscrupulous ones may give the impression to the public that they are
giving money to charity. “The less information there is about an organization
the more people should be careful,” said David Wetzel, administrator of the
Salvation Army of Rhode Island. “The big players are transparent.”
In Rhode Island, organizations
collecting and selling textiles to support their charitable works include Big
Brothers Big Sisters of RI, Goodwill of Southern New England, the Salvation
Army, Planet Aid, and St. Vincent de Paul.
Leaders of the major charities are justly proud of their work. In Rhode Island, Big Brother Big Sisters provides help to underprivileged children through volunteer mentors supervised by staff counselors.
Goodwill of Southern New England provides job training for people with disabilities and other barriers to employment.
Salvation Army runs a free residential rehabilitation center for people with addictions and homelessness.
Planet Aid sells clothing into developing countries in Africa and
Latin America, where people may establish small resale shops, selling to people
who need cheap clothes.
These summaries of major non-profits are
from officials in the organizations:
● Big Brothers Big Sisters of RI – Youth mentoring program began in 1996 and the donation center opened in 1997 to support that program, serving 200 mentor-youth pairs. Spending includes emergency aid to families and enrichment programs like music lessons or summer camp.
Donated clothes and household goods are sold to Savers, a for-profit company. Sales of clothes pay for 70 percent of the cost of the mentoring program. In the last five years, BBBS has collected 3.95 million pounds of textiles. When a non-profit partner hosts a BBBS bin, that group gets 30 percent of the income from the bin.
The national organization is rated 97 %
and four out of four stars by Charity Navigator. Almost all regional branches
are in the high 90s.
Bringing donations to Savers in Warwick —
Photo by Mary Lhowe
● Goodwill of Southern New England –Bins are located only at municipal transfer stations or on Goodwill store properties. Employs 1,000 people. Runs an advanced processing facility in Hamden, Conn., and will soon build a second such facility in East Providence.
Sells donated clothes in stores. Any that cannot be sold are bundled and sold
to distributors. Gives free goods or coupons to families in emergencies. Many
listings for local branches of Goodwill are shown in Charity Navigator; most
are rated 90 to 100 % with three or four stars.
The Salvation Army – Clothing is collected
by scheduled pickups, at donation bins, and at five donations centers / thrift
stores in the state. An estimated 2.5 million garments are donated every year.
Clothing and textiles that cannot be sold at retail – about 100,000 pounds a
month — are bailed and sold by distributors. Prices vary by global demand,
ranging from 7 cents to 50 cents per pound. Rated 100 % and four stars in
Charity Navigator.
● Planet Aid –Sells most textiles in bulk
internationally. Operates 10,000 collection bins, including 110 in Rhode
Island. Since 1997, collected 1 million tons of textiles and raised $100
million for community development around the world. Shares revenues with
nonprofit partners. Gross revenue in 2023 was $35 million. Of that, $26 million
was used for operations and $3.7 million was donated to schools in the U.S.,
Central America and Africa. Rated 87 % and three out of four stars by Charity
Navigator.
● Kiducation – This is a brand name used by a New Haven, Conn.-based non-profit called Community Crusade for Children. According to its website, CCC donates to Unto – a Cru Ministry, headquartered in Plano, Tex., which works on children’s welfare programs overseas, and other non-profits.
In 2017, CCC sold its Kiducation operations in Rhode Island to
Zack Madison, who is head of a group in Rhode Island called Upcycle
Collaborative, with a headquarters in Pawtucket. The sale allowed Madison to
continue using the Kiducation brand name for a few years after he acquired
ownership. Rated 70% and two stars by Charity Navigator.
A much younger and Rhode Island-born for-profit company is Curbside Textile Recycling, founded in 2019 by Melanie Flamand, an insurance professional, and Marjorie Muller, a retired banker. Some charities will pick up textiles from homes via appointments, but Curbside ramped up the element of convenience by offering curbside pickup on a regular schedule.
Curbside drivers patrol Rhode Island
neighborhoods on regular municipal recycling pickup days, scanning the streets
for Curbside-labeled bags. Customers may also schedule pickups.
Curbside sells textiles overseas through a
distributor, for 10 to 40 cents a pound. Curbside donates two cents per pound
sold to selected charities favored by the owners, including shelters for women
and aid for animals.
Curbside is a for-profit enterprise, but, the co-owners said it has made very little profit, not even producing a paycheck for either of them in four years. Still, they said, they are motivated by worries about the environment and a desire to keep more textiles from flowing into the state’s Central Landfill.
They say Curbside has kept 838,000
pounds of textiles out of the state landfill. They noted that when cities and
towns keep their solid waste quantities low, they can avoid incurring higher
charges on tipping fees at the landfill.
Who’s Legit and Who Isn’t?
Almost all the managers of these operations
say the game is getting rougher in recent years as mysterious or fly-by-night
operators get involved.
Fred Olsson, founder, CEO and president of
Planet Aid, said, “Today, most donation bins are owned and operated by
for-profit and traditional non-profits are getting the short end of the stick.”
Olsson said for-profit collectors of
clothing donations come up with hokey names to slap on their bins like
“Together We Share” or “Better World” or “God’s Hand,” to “disguise” them and
create the appearance of a charitable organization when it is not.
Managers of charities urge the public to
make informed choices about where their castoff clothing is going and whom it
will support.
“These operations support 70% of our
mentoring program,” said Tina Santos, director of marketing for Big Brothers
Big Sisters. “So, competition is worrisome. If [donors] are looking to help
Rhode Island, they should donate to an organization that supports this state.”
