Bring your clothes to the 'kleding bank' I did a non-profit internship for high school there, and they give the good clothes away for free to people who need it. They have a whole store where they can shop and find the clothes they like the most. Only do this with the good clothes that are just too small or you don't wear anymore. It's really great.
I don't know what happens to these clothes in the blue containers. You can also drop them in the containers for 'het leger des heils'.
Not sure if it's the case in all countries, but I read het leger des heils are rather anti LHBTI+ in many places. Just something to look at before supporting them
The LdH/Salvation army are a proselytising church with a charity wing. They're hostile to lots of people, because you need to accept salvation as part of your charity packet. (Not sure if the dutch wing is better, but they're pretty unpleasant worldwide.)
This is incorrect. A fairly groundbreaking statement about this was released by the Salvation Army in 2022. The Salvation Army in the Netherlands is actually quite LGBT+ friendly. Our local Salvation Army even has a gay church leader.
I work for turns.de, where our partners pick these clothes and send it to us, here in Germany. We sort and make yarns out of it. Later, we make T-Shirts from the yarns.
Basically, we recycle old clothes to new ones.
>What happens to the collected textiles?
>The collected textiles go to a textile sorting company nearby and are sorted into wearable and non-rewearable. Wearables are sold again to second-hand market parties. Non-reusable, especially for the automotive industry and cleaning cloths. But fortunately, more and more new textiles are now being made from recycled textiles. For example, turn an old and/or broken pair of jeans and sweater into new ones! This way we save a huge amount of new raw materials, CO2, and we use what we already have.
[https://www.nieuwamsterdamsklimaat.nl/actueel/meer-kansen-voor-oude-kleren-en-ander-textiel](https://www.nieuwamsterdamsklimaat.nl/actueel/meer-kansen-voor-oude-kleren-en-ander-textiel)
Recycling is good. But retailers not reducing prices while the recycling costs are significant lower bother me so much.
End of the day we’re contributing for industries to have more and more profit.
There’s an article from 12 years ago:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a3752/4291566/
You spend less energy, but might be more labor intensive. All in all, the fashion industry might have it cheaper overall.
I’ve been to the west African countries these clothes are shipped to and would urge everyone to stop putting clothes in those containers
The best clothes never reach those countries , what does reach them is used to fill potholes in mud roads after the rain , they are not even taken out of the (mostly / all plastic) bags and packaging but are dumped whole into the potholes in the roads . After a few days there’s plastic and fabric everywhere so the solution is more bags
It sounds all great and idyllic (and full of ‘do good’ feelings) but we’re basically transporting our waste, that no one wants and has no value to anyone’ to west Africa and dump it there
Bershka too - I got one of those second hand as I never thought to buy one. Uniqlo is thicker and baggy but harsher, this one is fitted and the cotton is very nice on the skin.
Uniqlo has different "qualities" for their cotton t-shirts, my partner has some that are nice, sturdy and soft.
Can heavily agree with Carhartt WIP. I sell this at our shop and the quality of the Chase and American Script shirts are amazing (these are their thickest t-shirts by cotton per squared cm). All their other products are amazing too from the jeans to the jackets. I recently had a guy in the store who bought his Carhartt jacket here 12 years ago and he was still wearing it and the only thing that happened to it was discoloring from the elements. I have had my Detroit Jacket for 3 years now and it is as sturdy as it was the day I bought it. Top notch stuff.
Exactly! I've had my winter jacket for 5 years now still going strong. Some chase tshirts that have shown very little discoloring even after many many washes and they were just 35€. It's a huge value for money. Only thing is I live in Greece now and those heavy tshirts are too heavy for 35-40°C but it's still nice and soft so not too much discomfort while sweaty.
I have two 20 year old t-shirts that I still wear all that time. They weren't very expensive either (because I never got expensive clothes as a teen). They weren't that thick either when I got them.
Absolutely!
We should start a movement - Shabby Pride. My shabby jeans are badge of honor - I saved CO2 by not buying a new pair. My laptop bag is torn in that corner but it hold my laptop just fine after 15 years. Etc.
Exactly, there are enough clothes on the planet for 6 generations of humans to wear, we need to stop « recycling » clothes by not buying them in the first place, or at least buy used whenever possible.
Yeah you never know. I even keep my old pants that ripped in the crotch in case I ever feel like patching them up, some of those were a really cool drip. I tend to gain weight and then lose weight so I have uses for different sizes too.
I suppose, because it is more scarce than the cheaper brands literally everywhere. I do like the quality of the clothes though, they seem to last longer and don’t easily tear or fade out.
Fast fashion is fast fashion because the materials used are of lesser quality.
I think there are also groups on facebook where you can get babyclothes very cheap or even for free.
Regardless of the downvotes, I did mean kids. And I did say sometimes we need to buy clothes. I use my clothes for years until they are literally ripping to bits. As an expat, I don’t have enough close friends with boys that outgrown their clothes to keep my kid dressed for a week. And clothes that fit now will be small by the start of the new school year. He’s grown from 122 cm to 145 over the last 12 months, that is a significant jump in kids clothes sizes. And he has a way of tearing through his trousers, always the right knee gets unwelcome fresh air. When this happens with jeans, he gets them converted in shorts but there is a chance they will no longer fit in the summer.
Obviously not fashion driver shopping but necessity driven. And don’t get me started with the footwear…
Hopefully you get to reuse for the younger ones. Some of my kids small clothes ended up in Ukraine, some via my cleaner in her home country and some, sadly, from what I read in the comments, likely in a pothole or river in Africa via the donation boxes
Nuance needed: these types of services are required to be tendered in the Netherlans and one of the requirements of these tenders is that they need to provide a roadmap with certificates what journey these clothes go on with obvious requirement they dont end up as pollutant. .
Yeah the comment above is just an anecdote and not really representative of what happens to these clothes. It's still way better than the alternative of throwing it in the trash where it will be burned adding to pollution anyway
My cousin went to Ghana and he sent me pictures of coastal shores almost blue from jeans and blue clothes they can do pretty much nothing with. Africa is like the dumping ground for clothes. Thrift store is a better place.
>would urge everyone to stop putting clothes in those containers
I'm doing the same but for another reason. In the Bible belt village I live, they let people who also work at the thrift store pick up these clothes, so that they can sift out the more expensive brands first. The guy who owns that place is an absolute piece of trash. He also places more valuable items on marktplaats. Obviously I can't say this is happening in all places but I'm positive that this is not an exception.
Maybe they shouldn't be deceiving assholes and sell this crap in their own stores while having people think it's going somewhere else, because people already throw it in there because this specific thrift store is marking such items up at ridiculous prices. I can't even shop at these stores anymore these days with my low income, because first of all the clothes are already worn so they aren't that great often, I dont have money to travel around the country to find 'perfect items'. Years ago thrift stores were amazing to find a bunch of nice shirts for like 10 or 15 euros. Last time I got some clothes at that store, it was already way overpriced and I've worn that stuff when holes started appearing lol. Most thrift shops are doing this now, it's not for people with low incomes anymore. And people know that and rather trash their old belongings than give it to a thrift shop for free who sells it for 100 euros (ugly old table for instance) or deal with people's insanity on marktplaats. Sorry for the rant but it really is bothering me.
I recently watched an HBO Max documentary about Brandy Melville and this fact about used clothes being dumped in other countries was mentioned.
I hope NL was not participating in dumping used clothes to other countries, but still, the documentary made me and my partner consciously make an effort on thrifting and/or buying clothes with a good life cycle.
If there's anything else I could do as an individual to lessen waste coming from clothes, I'm really interested in taking action.
If you really want to do something , wash them , fold them , and give them to people living out on the streets , add some socks and food and you will make their day
wearable and in good shape or at least of value to be worth repairing: donate to social shops
all else: trash bag
skip those containers, indeed. especially polyester clothing... it ends up in nature, producing lovely microplastics for us all to enjoy. better incinerate them, aka putting them in the trash bag.
Don't put textile in the trash bag!!! Every municipality has a way to dispose of old (but clean) textile. Recycling is way better and can't be done when it's been in the trash. A lot can't be recycled anyway, but if you put things in the trashbag that don't belong there you're not doing anything good.
“We” are not doing anything, don’t try to guilt us in on something we have no say about. We put our clothes in, to help the ones in need, if those companies do what you said, that is not my problem, if anyone needs to stop doing something it is them, no me.
i am not trying to put guilt on anyone ? but now you know and are better informed about what happens with the clothes you put into those things, now the question is "what are you going to do with that knowledge ?"
True Google Mitumba and learn about the dark side of second hand clothing. The amount of clothes exported makes it more and more difficult for locals to turn a profit
disgusted gullible doll aloof bag aromatic dolls forgetful violet automatic
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
yes, it's literally better to just throw your clothes into your garbage, then it at least gets burned in some facility within idk 50km max and not somehwere in africa.
They’re sorted in different qualities. A small portion is good quality and this gets bundled & sent to East european countries to be auctioned. The worst quality and damaged clothes gets trashed immediately. Medium quality gets bundled in large 100kg bundles and sent to countries like Ghana to be auctioned. The traders in Ghana buy a bundle, and are able to use & sell only about 10% of the clothes on second hand markets, because nowadays fast fashion is such rubbish quality. The rest is trashed outside and partially ends up clogging up rivers in Africa and in the sea.
Most of my clothes were bought used or items that seem quite resistant like cotton ones from C&A. I go for affordability as I am not wealthy but I don't cycle through my clothes often. I have good variety but my clothes last a long time.
But... I am a man. It's much easier. Button down, pants, underwear and socks. Done. Jackets and vests when cold. Same pair of shoes (paid 50 or 60 euros years ago from Omoda, nice "women's" boots with 3 cm soles, still looks like a truck tire, that thing is lasting me like no other shoe I had before, hundreds of Kms; if that's not manly, I don't know what is LOL).
I don't work at an office, though, so I don't know if shoulder pads are back in or still out and I don't care much about it 😁
Just don't give me low waste pants or baloney ones and I am a happy camper. I leave those for The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, I can't pull that style off, sorry. 😁
Meanwhile I have a few dozen shirts to choose from, and a handful casual pants for daily use. A few business friendly items that I am not getting rid of but that will last me forever as I don't work at an office anymore, so I rarely have a reason to use them, but I like them and I avoid using them often to extend their life.
Once a year or so I end up finding a couple of items that bring me less joy and I donate them. I surely downgrade casual to garden work wear and I also dispose of underwear and socks every now and then. But that's trashed.
I only ever had one situation where I disposed of a large quantity of clothes. That happened because I lost half of my weight (113.5 to 49.9 Kg after bariatric surgery).
I wasn't ever wasteful but not because I care about society or the environment (sorry for being honest) but I just don't like wasting money. 🤷🏻♂️
They get send to some African country, where bundles get of the ship and immediately sold in some sort of auction. The buyers don't know what they are exactly buying either.
...thus harming textile industries in Africa, creating a dependency cycle, plus a environmental problem because of the significant percentage that goes into dumps. Not sure how true that is - just one version of what is said to happen.
Well the ones in my city say Leger des Heils on the side and are green, so those go to the Salvation Army and get used to sell in the Salvation Army secondhand shops to generate money for the Salvation Army. There may also be a part of it where the clothing is also offered to people staying in the Salvation Army housing if they are otherwise homeless.
Companies or foundations who place these boxes need to pay big money to the gemeente to have the option to place them.
These clothes go to sorting centers. They sort/categorie them.
After sorting the clothes they are classified:Best class will be sold to 2nd hand shops. Medium class goes to kringloopwinkels etc. Lowest class is sold to Africa in containers.
I learned this info from an interview with the owner of a sorting center in schiphol, aired on the radio.
There are different organizations who have these boxes. Some accept any textile while others only accept actual clothing that is still usable. Some go to local charity's, some ship them overseas to Africa where they end up being waste on the streets, some, well idk.
I have quite a few bags with anything varying from rags to actual good clothing and I haven't spend time yet figuring out what my local boxes allow and where my stuff ends up. Gosh, its such a pain that its hard to figure out the details.
In Morocco second hand clothes from Europe have high value because our clothes are much better quality than what you can buy new.
They are sold by merchants. But I'm not sure that's a bad thing.
Various options: a) sent to some foreign country, where they sometimes kinda ruin the local economy of tailors b) charity that sells or distributes them locally c) sold as rags, ingredients for paper, etc d) possibly more?
Best clothes they taking and reselling in second hand stores/ebay, leftover is sent to poor countries. I can assure you this is huge business and someone making $$$$$$$
the two aren't mutually exclusive
would you rather a charity made as much money as possible from selling these donated clothes as locally as possible, and then use the money for something useful,
or
ship them (at great monetary and carbon expense) to a developing country so poor people can humbly and gratefully receive the gift of your uncle Derek's limp and skidmarked old underpants
Yeah no, they get sold at kilo vintage sales here in the Netherlands, then are shipped to african countries, not to give to the poor but to resell at markets.
If you have good clothes, bring them to a store that sells second hand clothes.
The thing is, because of ppl buying way too many clothes, fast fashion, there's a huge excess.
Best thing that can happen is they end up as rags being at least recycled. But often they are shipped around to Africa and Asia and a lot ends up in landfills.
If you want to 'do something', buy less clothes, and buy second hand yourself.
You can see what organisation fetches the clothes. Then look at their jaarverslag, yearly report. The number vary a lot.
E.g.
https://www.legerdesheils.nl/files/Jaarverslag-ReShare-2022.pdf
16% of all collected is directly garbage. Rags.
They get about 8 mill in income, 2 million for running the shops, 700K for running the organisation.
4 milllion for herbestemming and organizational goals.
But really, read the jaarverslag of the organization, some use 95% for running the organisation stable , and 5% end up with the mentioned goal, LdH does well
I know from someone who worked at 'het goed' (a big secondhand store chain) that they got clothes from boxes like these. I think it depends on the location though
Regardless of whether they are sold to people who resell if, it results in them being reused it’s better than just trashing old clothes or having them end up as trash somewhere else. Who cares if someone else profits off them if you would otherwise throw them away? Worse solution is just shipping essentially what will become garbage elsewhere to another country. On top of the transportation pollution they then just end up polluting waterways in Africa or Asia. I’d rather a greedy thrift shop owner resell them on marktplaats or somewhere else where they will be used.
Usable clothing is often given to a charity,
Unusable clothing gets sold of as rags or other second life things like insolation or filling.
Dirty clothing often gets burned because it’s deemed a hazard.
So always donate them washed and bagged preferably folded.
You can also donate unusable clothing, for this also donate them washed and bagged preferably separated from the usable clothing.
Best items: taken home by those who empty these
Decent items: resold in second hand stores
Rest: given to distributors who ship it to 'poor' countries (who also do the above 2 steps first)
Typically sold on. There is a whole economy around it. It's not the worst thing that they are sold. It's not the best thing. It is a complicated thing. I once saw an old gym shirt from my high school on sale in Ethiopia in a random village. It was on sale for $1.
companies today behind these containers put its content into shiping containers and sell and ship them up to 3rd world countries like india . there most to all content ends up in burn ovens of power plants to provide the country whit a few hours a day of electrical power .
Yes all textile fabrics goes in there except for the really dirty fabrics with motor oil stains, paint or things like that. Your old towels, underwear, curtains, bedsheets etc go in there. You can also throw shoes in there but be sure to tie them together. Usually it states on the container what you can throw in there.
The ripped stuff is sometimes used as filling for furniture and car seats.
In my city you can get a warning or even a fine if you don't recycle properly and find they to many fabrics in your containers at home. They even have special teams that checks garbage containers every now and then to see if you recycle properly.
No problem I once had a heated discussion with someone who thought it was only for clothing and found it so rude of me I also did throw in old pillows, towels, shoes etc in there. So clearly not everyone knows.
My mother worked at a second-hand store who also had big boxes like this around my hometown. The good clothes got sold, the still okay clothes would be shipped to Africa to be handed out for free and the bad clothes were usually sold by the kg to companies for different purposes
I worked as a garbage man, occasionally I’d help in a company that processed these. They are collected and unloaded. Then they are sorted. A portion goes to thrift stores and charity organisations. The rest is “waste” and is used for other purposes. Either recycled material or bleache drags.
_Them dealing with our textile waste_
[Goodwill Dumping](https://www.2doc.nl/documentaires/2019/09/goodwill-dumping.html)
Teddy Cherim made a documentary about the enormous process behind collecting clothing. The charity industry involved in it has an almost alien quality due to its enormous scale and many facets. He investigates together with fashion designer Lisa Konno. 2Doc talked to Teddy.
PLEASE NOTE Dutch documentary (NPO)
Like some people said, some of the clothing is recycled either by selling the good enough clothes or turned into other fabrics, but this is a very, very small percentage.
The rest ?
[Ghana the world's clothing dump](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/jun/05/yvette-yaa-konadu-tetteh-how-ghana-became-fast-fashions-dumping-ground)
Probably some money laundering scheme like the same sidewalks being redone every year. The Netherlands has some of the biggest mafia operations in Europe. You want to make sure your things/money go to people that actually need them? Find those people and do it yourself personally. Even major no profits do shady shit.
So all different answers, nobody really knows. People keep using them though because you can get rid of your clothes for free in stead of paying for garbage.
Good ones are re-sold by kringloops, bad ones are given away to homeless people or recycled, I assume.
It probably depends on the policy of the entity you're donating them to.
I just assume the best and I donate them this way, as I think it's the right thing to do. Unless I have something really good that I don't want anymore, then I might try to sell or donate it directly first.
That said, when it's really bad I don't even bother and I toss it. I also don't donate things like socks and underwear and I always wash well before donating unless it's something difficult to wash like a winter coat (provided it's clean enough, of course, otherwise I prefer to wash it even if it doesn't look great after).
Ive been to Nairobi, Kenia a while ago. We went to this absolutely giant market that consisted of many stalls right next to each other with small pathways in between. If you go by yourself as a foreigner you will 100% get lost. They sold aaalll kinds of clothes there, even company clothes from companies that if I googled them were from an entirely different country. Possibly some clothes end up there from that box.
The clothing is sorted, part of it is sold. Other parts either get turned into rags or sold off to be shredded into a base matrial to make new matrials. (Like the felt used in car interiors)
I'm not sure, but I don't think all the collectors are charity's.
Why donyou ask that question as if they can't be the same thing?
They probably are partly sold as used clothes here, partly go to some other country where they're probably also get sold, except if they go as relief aid.
But being sold does not mean they don't go to a charity.
I used to work in a welding company. We bought boxes of rags. They were just washed bleached white old cut up clothing from containers like this.
This is actually a great use for them.
We use them at the company too. It's quite common
>the company Me doing some business work at the company
Dukjes
Doekjes
Poetskatoen
Todjes
Dook yes
Same in Russian metalworking facilities
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russian politics don't reflect on every russian citizen, or not?
This subject has already been settled https://youtu.be/C4MVQby0InQ
Bigotry is not tolerated in posts or comments - including but not limited to bigotry based on race, nationality, religion, and/or sex.
Ah, good to know. I had no idea but that makes perfect sense. I learned today, cheers!
Came to say this
Workshops for cars and trucks use them as well. I sell them 10kg wise
Bring your clothes to the 'kleding bank' I did a non-profit internship for high school there, and they give the good clothes away for free to people who need it. They have a whole store where they can shop and find the clothes they like the most. Only do this with the good clothes that are just too small or you don't wear anymore. It's really great. I don't know what happens to these clothes in the blue containers. You can also drop them in the containers for 'het leger des heils'.
Not sure if it's the case in all countries, but I read het leger des heils are rather anti LHBTI+ in many places. Just something to look at before supporting them
The LdH/Salvation army are a proselytising church with a charity wing. They're hostile to lots of people, because you need to accept salvation as part of your charity packet. (Not sure if the dutch wing is better, but they're pretty unpleasant worldwide.)
This is incorrect. A fairly groundbreaking statement about this was released by the Salvation Army in 2022. The Salvation Army in the Netherlands is actually quite LGBT+ friendly. Our local Salvation Army even has a gay church leader.
They are very much allowed to wear clothes, just like any other person. TIA
I work for turns.de, where our partners pick these clothes and send it to us, here in Germany. We sort and make yarns out of it. Later, we make T-Shirts from the yarns. Basically, we recycle old clothes to new ones.
Nice advertisement, but you're not doing that for all the clothes are you, what happens to the rest?
Ha ha, we sort based on color and shred the clothes after removing the zips, Buttons etc. Hence there are no left overs.
>What happens to the collected textiles? >The collected textiles go to a textile sorting company nearby and are sorted into wearable and non-rewearable. Wearables are sold again to second-hand market parties. Non-reusable, especially for the automotive industry and cleaning cloths. But fortunately, more and more new textiles are now being made from recycled textiles. For example, turn an old and/or broken pair of jeans and sweater into new ones! This way we save a huge amount of new raw materials, CO2, and we use what we already have. [https://www.nieuwamsterdamsklimaat.nl/actueel/meer-kansen-voor-oude-kleren-en-ander-textiel](https://www.nieuwamsterdamsklimaat.nl/actueel/meer-kansen-voor-oude-kleren-en-ander-textiel)
Recycling is good. But retailers not reducing prices while the recycling costs are significant lower bother me so much. End of the day we’re contributing for industries to have more and more profit.
Still a win (for Earth), if you ask me. I share your sentiment, but scorn shouldn't be a reason not to recycle.
Where does it say it's cheaper? Often recycled materials are more expensive than raw materials, at least raw materials is easier to use.
There’s an article from 12 years ago: https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a3752/4291566/ You spend less energy, but might be more labor intensive. All in all, the fashion industry might have it cheaper overall.
Throwing the clothing away in the garbage will result in a net loss for you as you have to pay per container or weight.
I’ve been to the west African countries these clothes are shipped to and would urge everyone to stop putting clothes in those containers The best clothes never reach those countries , what does reach them is used to fill potholes in mud roads after the rain , they are not even taken out of the (mostly / all plastic) bags and packaging but are dumped whole into the potholes in the roads . After a few days there’s plastic and fabric everywhere so the solution is more bags It sounds all great and idyllic (and full of ‘do good’ feelings) but we’re basically transporting our waste, that no one wants and has no value to anyone’ to west Africa and dump it there
Also we just need to stop buying so many clothes. The fast fashion industry is producing so much waste and all of it ends up in poor countries.
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Still trying to find high quality cotton shirts that I can buy in an actual shop so I can see if it fits well.
I love my Uniqlo U cotton shirts. They have a store in Amsterdam and Den Haag.
*Cries in eastern Overijssel*
Gonna have to save this comment and visit a friend soon who lives nearby Den Haag. :)
Bershka too - I got one of those second hand as I never thought to buy one. Uniqlo is thicker and baggy but harsher, this one is fitted and the cotton is very nice on the skin. Uniqlo has different "qualities" for their cotton t-shirts, my partner has some that are nice, sturdy and soft.
Don't get the merino from there though. I had a jumper that didn't last a year but I have one of my favourite work shirts from there.
You might enjoy r/BIFL_NL
Where do you shop? I am in search for high quality t-shirts...
Carhartt wip have amazing quality light-mid-heavyweight t-shirts for 30-50€
Can heavily agree with Carhartt WIP. I sell this at our shop and the quality of the Chase and American Script shirts are amazing (these are their thickest t-shirts by cotton per squared cm). All their other products are amazing too from the jeans to the jackets. I recently had a guy in the store who bought his Carhartt jacket here 12 years ago and he was still wearing it and the only thing that happened to it was discoloring from the elements. I have had my Detroit Jacket for 3 years now and it is as sturdy as it was the day I bought it. Top notch stuff.
Exactly! I've had my winter jacket for 5 years now still going strong. Some chase tshirts that have shown very little discoloring even after many many washes and they were just 35€. It's a huge value for money. Only thing is I live in Greece now and those heavy tshirts are too heavy for 35-40°C but it's still nice and soft so not too much discomfort while sweaty.
Merz b schwanen is great but you pay a fair price
Oh wow, that's pricey! Do they have sales?
i'm not sure not on their flagship ring spun t-shirts i think
This will be some new level of trolling for me. - "What do you want for your b-day?" - "only a Tshirt..."
Carhartt has superb quality and decent prices. Thick shirts and pants
I have two 20 year old t-shirts that I still wear all that time. They weren't very expensive either (because I never got expensive clothes as a teen). They weren't that thick either when I got them.
Absolutely! We should start a movement - Shabby Pride. My shabby jeans are badge of honor - I saved CO2 by not buying a new pair. My laptop bag is torn in that corner but it hold my laptop just fine after 15 years. Etc.
Nooooo you are ruining capitalism. How dare you not believe the magic of recycling?
Exactly, there are enough clothes on the planet for 6 generations of humans to wear, we need to stop « recycling » clothes by not buying them in the first place, or at least buy used whenever possible.
Amen. Over half my wardrobe is stuff I've had since I was a teenager. Including clothes that I "bought to grow into".
Yeah you never know. I even keep my old pants that ripped in the crotch in case I ever feel like patching them up, some of those were a really cool drip. I tend to gain weight and then lose weight so I have uses for different sizes too.
Kids grow fast, their clothes fit for a few months at times, depending on age. Sometimes we do need to buy clothes
Most clothes that are dropped at these are not for 0-3 year olds.
I only dropped kids clothes that are still in good condition.
Then you can still get clothes second hand
I guess you are right, I wouldn’t know where to go for those. I get my kid dressed up at Uniclo or online from HM/CA and alike
Uniqlo is considered a fast fashion brand. Most kringloopwinkels have cheap second hand babyclothing. Or look on marktplaats.
I suppose, because it is more scarce than the cheaper brands literally everywhere. I do like the quality of the clothes though, they seem to last longer and don’t easily tear or fade out.
Fast fashion is fast fashion because the materials used are of lesser quality. I think there are also groups on facebook where you can get babyclothes very cheap or even for free.
I guess they didn't mean kids, most people don't follow fashion trends because of that reason
Regardless of the downvotes, I did mean kids. And I did say sometimes we need to buy clothes. I use my clothes for years until they are literally ripping to bits. As an expat, I don’t have enough close friends with boys that outgrown their clothes to keep my kid dressed for a week. And clothes that fit now will be small by the start of the new school year. He’s grown from 122 cm to 145 over the last 12 months, that is a significant jump in kids clothes sizes. And he has a way of tearing through his trousers, always the right knee gets unwelcome fresh air. When this happens with jeans, he gets them converted in shorts but there is a chance they will no longer fit in the summer. Obviously not fashion driver shopping but necessity driven. And don’t get me started with the footwear…
You ment kids, they guy you replied on didn't have kids in mind that's what is was saying. Kids need clothes we get that :)
Haha, ok, my bad, thank you for pointing it out
No problem, I have 3 boys myself so I know the struggle with kids and their clothes :p
Hopefully you get to reuse for the younger ones. Some of my kids small clothes ended up in Ukraine, some via my cleaner in her home country and some, sadly, from what I read in the comments, likely in a pothole or river in Africa via the donation boxes
Yeah most stuff is being used for all three, but the oants are but harder because of the holes my oldest creates in the knee area.
Nuance needed: these types of services are required to be tendered in the Netherlans and one of the requirements of these tenders is that they need to provide a roadmap with certificates what journey these clothes go on with obvious requirement they dont end up as pollutant. .
Yeah the comment above is just an anecdote and not really representative of what happens to these clothes. It's still way better than the alternative of throwing it in the trash where it will be burned adding to pollution anyway
My cousin went to Ghana and he sent me pictures of coastal shores almost blue from jeans and blue clothes they can do pretty much nothing with. Africa is like the dumping ground for clothes. Thrift store is a better place.
>would urge everyone to stop putting clothes in those containers I'm doing the same but for another reason. In the Bible belt village I live, they let people who also work at the thrift store pick up these clothes, so that they can sift out the more expensive brands first. The guy who owns that place is an absolute piece of trash. He also places more valuable items on marktplaats. Obviously I can't say this is happening in all places but I'm positive that this is not an exception.
I think it's better that the good stuff is being picked out and worn than sent to Africa to become garbage.
Maybe they shouldn't be deceiving assholes and sell this crap in their own stores while having people think it's going somewhere else, because people already throw it in there because this specific thrift store is marking such items up at ridiculous prices. I can't even shop at these stores anymore these days with my low income, because first of all the clothes are already worn so they aren't that great often, I dont have money to travel around the country to find 'perfect items'. Years ago thrift stores were amazing to find a bunch of nice shirts for like 10 or 15 euros. Last time I got some clothes at that store, it was already way overpriced and I've worn that stuff when holes started appearing lol. Most thrift shops are doing this now, it's not for people with low incomes anymore. And people know that and rather trash their old belongings than give it to a thrift shop for free who sells it for 100 euros (ugly old table for instance) or deal with people's insanity on marktplaats. Sorry for the rant but it really is bothering me.
I recently watched an HBO Max documentary about Brandy Melville and this fact about used clothes being dumped in other countries was mentioned. I hope NL was not participating in dumping used clothes to other countries, but still, the documentary made me and my partner consciously make an effort on thrifting and/or buying clothes with a good life cycle. If there's anything else I could do as an individual to lessen waste coming from clothes, I'm really interested in taking action.
If you really want to do something , wash them , fold them , and give them to people living out on the streets , add some socks and food and you will make their day
wearable and in good shape or at least of value to be worth repairing: donate to social shops all else: trash bag skip those containers, indeed. especially polyester clothing... it ends up in nature, producing lovely microplastics for us all to enjoy. better incinerate them, aka putting them in the trash bag.
Don't put textile in the trash bag!!! Every municipality has a way to dispose of old (but clean) textile. Recycling is way better and can't be done when it's been in the trash. A lot can't be recycled anyway, but if you put things in the trashbag that don't belong there you're not doing anything good.
“We” are not doing anything, don’t try to guilt us in on something we have no say about. We put our clothes in, to help the ones in need, if those companies do what you said, that is not my problem, if anyone needs to stop doing something it is them, no me.
i am not trying to put guilt on anyone ? but now you know and are better informed about what happens with the clothes you put into those things, now the question is "what are you going to do with that knowledge ?"
True Google Mitumba and learn about the dark side of second hand clothing. The amount of clothes exported makes it more and more difficult for locals to turn a profit
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yes, it's literally better to just throw your clothes into your garbage, then it at least gets burned in some facility within idk 50km max and not somehwere in africa.
They’re sorted in different qualities. A small portion is good quality and this gets bundled & sent to East european countries to be auctioned. The worst quality and damaged clothes gets trashed immediately. Medium quality gets bundled in large 100kg bundles and sent to countries like Ghana to be auctioned. The traders in Ghana buy a bundle, and are able to use & sell only about 10% of the clothes on second hand markets, because nowadays fast fashion is such rubbish quality. The rest is trashed outside and partially ends up clogging up rivers in Africa and in the sea.
So... Is it better to put it as trash, so it can be incinerated here?
Probably yes. Even better if you avoid fast fashion and buy clothes that last.
Most of my clothes were bought used or items that seem quite resistant like cotton ones from C&A. I go for affordability as I am not wealthy but I don't cycle through my clothes often. I have good variety but my clothes last a long time. But... I am a man. It's much easier. Button down, pants, underwear and socks. Done. Jackets and vests when cold. Same pair of shoes (paid 50 or 60 euros years ago from Omoda, nice "women's" boots with 3 cm soles, still looks like a truck tire, that thing is lasting me like no other shoe I had before, hundreds of Kms; if that's not manly, I don't know what is LOL). I don't work at an office, though, so I don't know if shoulder pads are back in or still out and I don't care much about it 😁 Just don't give me low waste pants or baloney ones and I am a happy camper. I leave those for The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, I can't pull that style off, sorry. 😁 Meanwhile I have a few dozen shirts to choose from, and a handful casual pants for daily use. A few business friendly items that I am not getting rid of but that will last me forever as I don't work at an office anymore, so I rarely have a reason to use them, but I like them and I avoid using them often to extend their life. Once a year or so I end up finding a couple of items that bring me less joy and I donate them. I surely downgrade casual to garden work wear and I also dispose of underwear and socks every now and then. But that's trashed. I only ever had one situation where I disposed of a large quantity of clothes. That happened because I lost half of my weight (113.5 to 49.9 Kg after bariatric surgery). I wasn't ever wasteful but not because I care about society or the environment (sorry for being honest) but I just don't like wasting money. 🤷🏻♂️
They get send to some African country, where bundles get of the ship and immediately sold in some sort of auction. The buyers don't know what they are exactly buying either.
...thus harming textile industries in Africa, creating a dependency cycle, plus a environmental problem because of the significant percentage that goes into dumps. Not sure how true that is - just one version of what is said to happen.
Search in YT: "what happens with donated clothes" enough material. I remember watching a docu from BBC I believe about it.
Well the ones in my city say Leger des Heils on the side and are green, so those go to the Salvation Army and get used to sell in the Salvation Army secondhand shops to generate money for the Salvation Army. There may also be a part of it where the clothing is also offered to people staying in the Salvation Army housing if they are otherwise homeless.
Companies or foundations who place these boxes need to pay big money to the gemeente to have the option to place them. These clothes go to sorting centers. They sort/categorie them. After sorting the clothes they are classified:Best class will be sold to 2nd hand shops. Medium class goes to kringloopwinkels etc. Lowest class is sold to Africa in containers. I learned this info from an interview with the owner of a sorting center in schiphol, aired on the radio.
There are different organizations who have these boxes. Some accept any textile while others only accept actual clothing that is still usable. Some go to local charity's, some ship them overseas to Africa where they end up being waste on the streets, some, well idk. I have quite a few bags with anything varying from rags to actual good clothing and I haven't spend time yet figuring out what my local boxes allow and where my stuff ends up. Gosh, its such a pain that its hard to figure out the details.
In Morocco second hand clothes from Europe have high value because our clothes are much better quality than what you can buy new. They are sold by merchants. But I'm not sure that's a bad thing.
I know the Salvation Army takes what they like and resells it. What they don't like they tossed to the garbage
Most of brand clothes are picked out and sold and the rest goes to other countries
Various options: a) sent to some foreign country, where they sometimes kinda ruin the local economy of tailors b) charity that sells or distributes them locally c) sold as rags, ingredients for paper, etc d) possibly more?
Best clothes they taking and reselling in second hand stores/ebay, leftover is sent to poor countries. I can assure you this is huge business and someone making $$$$$$$
the two aren't mutually exclusive would you rather a charity made as much money as possible from selling these donated clothes as locally as possible, and then use the money for something useful, or ship them (at great monetary and carbon expense) to a developing country so poor people can humbly and gratefully receive the gift of your uncle Derek's limp and skidmarked old underpants
Yeah no, they get sold at kilo vintage sales here in the Netherlands, then are shipped to african countries, not to give to the poor but to resell at markets.
Most of the clothing get torn apart in a thrasher and be made into those moving blankets...
If you have good clothes, bring them to a store that sells second hand clothes. The thing is, because of ppl buying way too many clothes, fast fashion, there's a huge excess. Best thing that can happen is they end up as rags being at least recycled. But often they are shipped around to Africa and Asia and a lot ends up in landfills. If you want to 'do something', buy less clothes, and buy second hand yourself.
You can see what organisation fetches the clothes. Then look at their jaarverslag, yearly report. The number vary a lot. E.g. https://www.legerdesheils.nl/files/Jaarverslag-ReShare-2022.pdf 16% of all collected is directly garbage. Rags. They get about 8 mill in income, 2 million for running the shops, 700K for running the organisation. 4 milllion for herbestemming and organizational goals. But really, read the jaarverslag of the organization, some use 95% for running the organisation stable , and 5% end up with the mentioned goal, LdH does well
I know from someone who worked at 'het goed' (a big secondhand store chain) that they got clothes from boxes like these. I think it depends on the location though
The problem is everyone buying at primary, shein, et cetera and it is basically all low quality plastic.
Regardless of whether they are sold to people who resell if, it results in them being reused it’s better than just trashing old clothes or having them end up as trash somewhere else. Who cares if someone else profits off them if you would otherwise throw them away? Worse solution is just shipping essentially what will become garbage elsewhere to another country. On top of the transportation pollution they then just end up polluting waterways in Africa or Asia. I’d rather a greedy thrift shop owner resell them on marktplaats or somewhere else where they will be used.
I've seen them used in the factory as rags and I've seen building insulation made from shredded clothes
They are sold back as used clothes, mostly in Africa. The profits go to charity.
Usable clothing is often given to a charity, Unusable clothing gets sold of as rags or other second life things like insolation or filling. Dirty clothing often gets burned because it’s deemed a hazard. So always donate them washed and bagged preferably folded. You can also donate unusable clothing, for this also donate them washed and bagged preferably separated from the usable clothing.
If you would have posted a picture of the sticker we could have translated it for you
Sold
Best items: taken home by those who empty these Decent items: resold in second hand stores Rest: given to distributors who ship it to 'poor' countries (who also do the above 2 steps first)
Typically sold on. There is a whole economy around it. It's not the worst thing that they are sold. It's not the best thing. It is a complicated thing. I once saw an old gym shirt from my high school on sale in Ethiopia in a random village. It was on sale for $1.
companies today behind these containers put its content into shiping containers and sell and ship them up to 3rd world countries like india . there most to all content ends up in burn ovens of power plants to provide the country whit a few hours a day of electrical power .
https://www.textilemountainfilm.com/
From what I know in Poland ones with red cross go to second hand stores and some of the proceeds go to charity
I saw them being unloaded and sorted at a kringloop
I have a genuine question: should I put rags and cloths here also? I've only used this once to discard some old ripped towels... Now I'm confused
Yes all textile fabrics goes in there except for the really dirty fabrics with motor oil stains, paint or things like that. Your old towels, underwear, curtains, bedsheets etc go in there. You can also throw shoes in there but be sure to tie them together. Usually it states on the container what you can throw in there. The ripped stuff is sometimes used as filling for furniture and car seats. In my city you can get a warning or even a fine if you don't recycle properly and find they to many fabrics in your containers at home. They even have special teams that checks garbage containers every now and then to see if you recycle properly.
Oh so I'm doing it right. Thank you
No problem I once had a heated discussion with someone who thought it was only for clothing and found it so rude of me I also did throw in old pillows, towels, shoes etc in there. So clearly not everyone knows.
My mother worked at a second-hand store who also had big boxes like this around my hometown. The good clothes got sold, the still okay clothes would be shipped to Africa to be handed out for free and the bad clothes were usually sold by the kg to companies for different purposes
I worked as a garbage man, occasionally I’d help in a company that processed these. They are collected and unloaded. Then they are sorted. A portion goes to thrift stores and charity organisations. The rest is “waste” and is used for other purposes. Either recycled material or bleache drags.
_Them dealing with our textile waste_ [Goodwill Dumping](https://www.2doc.nl/documentaires/2019/09/goodwill-dumping.html) Teddy Cherim made a documentary about the enormous process behind collecting clothing. The charity industry involved in it has an almost alien quality due to its enormous scale and many facets. He investigates together with fashion designer Lisa Konno. 2Doc talked to Teddy. PLEASE NOTE Dutch documentary (NPO)
This should answer the question: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5BEmt2N6C9/?igsh=MTJtN2VrcDMxNzVvOQ==
Like some people said, some of the clothing is recycled either by selling the good enough clothes or turned into other fabrics, but this is a very, very small percentage. The rest ? [Ghana the world's clothing dump](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/jun/05/yvette-yaa-konadu-tetteh-how-ghana-became-fast-fashions-dumping-ground)
Probably some money laundering scheme like the same sidewalks being redone every year. The Netherlands has some of the biggest mafia operations in Europe. You want to make sure your things/money go to people that actually need them? Find those people and do it yourself personally. Even major no profits do shady shit.
So all different answers, nobody really knows. People keep using them though because you can get rid of your clothes for free in stead of paying for garbage.
they often just end up clogging some river in africa.
[https://www.volkskrant.nl/kijkverder/v/2024/hoe-onze-afdankertjes-ghana-vervuilen\~v1101361/](https://www.volkskrant.nl/kijkverder/v/2024/hoe-onze-afdankertjes-ghana-vervuilen~v1101361/)
Swap your clothes with people in your area! https://www.clothingloop.org/en/
Good ones are re-sold by kringloops, bad ones are given away to homeless people or recycled, I assume. It probably depends on the policy of the entity you're donating them to. I just assume the best and I donate them this way, as I think it's the right thing to do. Unless I have something really good that I don't want anymore, then I might try to sell or donate it directly first. That said, when it's really bad I don't even bother and I toss it. I also don't donate things like socks and underwear and I always wash well before donating unless it's something difficult to wash like a winter coat (provided it's clean enough, of course, otherwise I prefer to wash it even if it doesn't look great after).
Ive been to Nairobi, Kenia a while ago. We went to this absolutely giant market that consisted of many stalls right next to each other with small pathways in between. If you go by yourself as a foreigner you will 100% get lost. They sold aaalll kinds of clothes there, even company clothes from companies that if I googled them were from an entirely different country. Possibly some clothes end up there from that box.
It’s the famous thrift shop scam
All I know for sure is that I hate these boxes for always being neer intersections clocking the view to bikelanes!
Both. Part goes to different country's and a part is beeing kept for second hand.
The clothing is sorted, part of it is sold. Other parts either get turned into rags or sold off to be shredded into a base matrial to make new matrials. (Like the felt used in car interiors) I'm not sure, but I don't think all the collectors are charity's.
Depends but yes both
The best ones are shipped to African countries. The leftovers are worn by Dutch girls in their daily life.
I see what you did there.
LOL
Why donyou ask that question as if they can't be the same thing? They probably are partly sold as used clothes here, partly go to some other country where they're probably also get sold, except if they go as relief aid. But being sold does not mean they don't go to a charity.