Textiles is one of the biggest industries in the entire world, and every year, many millions of garments are manufactured and purchased, since everything needs clothes to wear for everyday life, for work, and for formal events or even sleepwear, but the bad news is that not all clothes that are purchased always stay useful to someone. Many Americans simply throw away old clothes every year, and these old clothes end up going to landfills where they aren’t doing anyone any good, just taking up space. Other old clothes are recycled into industrial rags or furniture stuffing, and while this means they serve a purpose, these old clothes could instead be sent to charities such as a Red Cross donation center, and a Red Cross pickup site is always open to more donations. A Red Cross pickup site will be fully open every day of the year for those who donate old clothing, and Americans today are urged to give away their old clothes to charity whenever possible and help curb rates of clothes being thrown away. How much do American already donate, and why?
Donations Today
It is true that many clothes are thrown away every year, but the good news is that Americans also choose to donate a lot to charity, and there are statistics to keep track of these rats of charity, such as those clothes given to a Red Cross pickup site. It has been determined that every year, 70% of Americans give to charities of all kinds, and about 3% of all American income is given to charity as well. Many of these old clothes being given away at Red Cross pickup sites and more are going overseas; around the world, 14.3 million tons of donated American textiles can be found in many nations. Among high net worth donors, some 63% of them say that “giving back to the community” is their main motivation for giving. Americans are, overall, consuming a lot of clothes, and not all clothing articles in a person’s closet are items that they want to keep. In fact, Americans together consume about 20 billion garments every year, and that figures to 68 garments and seven pairs of shoes per person. Statistically, this means that an average American purchases just over one piece of clothing per week, but not everything will be worn indefinitely. Americans often throw away clothes they no longer want, but if Red Cross pickup sites are visited with boxes or bags of donations, this rate of waste can be put under control and more families in need can get clothing they desire. How can an average American household today take part in clothing donations today to reduce waste and give back?
The Way to Donate
Nearly every American household is bound to have clothing that no one is wearing anymore, and these clothes are best off being packed up and sent to a Red Cross pickup site in one’s local community. To begin, everyone in a household can gather every single piece of clothing and all personal accessories from across the house and assemble them into a single huge pile on a bed or on the floor (depending on size). Shirts and coats, jeans, dresses and skirts, shoes, scarves, gloves, hats, and more can be put together into this pile, and it serves as a comprehensive inventory of what a household has. Some people who try this might be surprised by the size of the pile and what they find in it.
Now, everyone in a household can start to carefully pick through this pile and evaluate everything they find. A person should only keep clothes that they truly like and need, such as clothes that they feel good wearing and can’t do without. Clothes that end up being assigned for donations may be those that are worn out or out of fashion, or those that no longer fit or are redundant with newer clothes and thus never even get worn. Clothes to be kept will be returned to the dressers and closets where they belong, and the donations clothes will be packed up in boxes or bags and taken to a Red Cross pickup site and handed over to the staff there.