For example, in the United States, “85% of all textiles are thrown away or burned”, according to the US EPA. What’s more, according to a BBC study, “by 2030, we are expected as a whole to be discarding more than 134 million tons of textiles a year.”

Recycling is an option in some cases, but over 60% of clothing cannot be recycled, mainly due to the material they are made out of. 

It’s no secret that landfills are filling up at an unsustainable rate, and outsourcing options (like sending our textile waste to third-world countries) have greatly reduced for the most part. 

Here in Cook County, we have the added barrier of landfill access. 

In a Cook County Higher Education presentation by Kristina Mattson of Zero Waste Cook County, Mattson shared that our waste travels over 120 miles to Superior, Wisconsin. The landfill, called, Moccasin Mike Landfill, was set to close this year. However, without another option available for Cook County’s waste, the closing date was extended until 2026. The bad news is that the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has yet to approve a new landfill space (one hasn’t been approved for the state since 1993). 

All of this begs the questions: where will our waste go, how much further will it need to travel (increasing the number of emissions which contribute to the climate crisis), and how can we reduce it overall? 

Clothing donations in Cook County

Much of the overall clothing waste occurs during manufacturing and from clothing retailers. It’s a vicious cycle; manufacturers over-produce seasonal clothing (much of it considered “fast fashion”: inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends), retailers don’t sell it all before the seasons or trends change, and it starts all over again. 

As consumers, one thing we can do to interrupt this cycle is to buy our clothing secondhand - which prevents the need for new, fast fashion, and keeps clothing out of landfills. We can also donate clothing we no longer need (assuming it’s in good condition). 

But in recent years, donation centers have been overwhelmed with donations, and of the items donated, only a certain percentage is sellable. So what happens to the items that aren’t? Or that doesn’t sell?

In Cook County, there are a couple of local secondhand store options that sell clothing: First and Second Thrift Store (which is closing at the end of the year, but still looking for a new building), and the Reuse Shop at the Grand Marais Recycling Center. 

While these are great options for buying secondhand clothes, the intake process for donations is not always as simple as it seems. 

There is a misconception that when you donate clothing to a secondhand organization, it will get sorted, put out on the sales floor, and someone who needs or wants it will buy it. 

But that’s not always the case.

Boreal Community Media reached out to First and Second Thrift Store and the Grand Marais Recycling Center to ask them about clothing donations. 

According to Tim J. Nelson of the Grand Marais Recycling Center, “the clothing intake has really varied substantially over the years from a low of just a couple tons annually, to over ten tons.”

First and Second Thrift Store does not track intake data, but both Ann Marie Mershon of First and Second and Nelson stated that about 50% of the clothes that get donated are able to be resold. 

Both Nelson and Mershon mentioned that some of the donations end up directly in the trash because they are dirty, torn, or in overall poor condition. 

The rest that doesn’t make it on the sales floor or doesn’t end up selling moves along in the waste stream. 

For the Recycling Center, Nelson said that “unfortunately, we do not have any backroom storage for any inventory, so we have to dispose of what we cannot sell.” 

For First and Second, Mershon mentioned that they have a 10-foot-deep trailer that they fill monthly; half of the contents are clothes. “We do have to throw away some items that are in poor condition”, she added. 

From there, Mershon mentioned that “we are fortunate enough to have a driver that will take it to the Goodwill in Duluth”. 

Donations to Duluth

Boreal Community Media reached out to the Duluth Goodwill to learn even more about what happens to clothing donations that aren’t accepted in Cook County. 

Scott Vezina, Director of Communications & Marketing of Goodwill Industries Vocational Enterprises (GIVE), which includes Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin, shared that the GIVE Stores have a 50-60% sell-through rate. This means that of the items that make it onto the sales floor, 50-60% sell.

“Nothing gets thrown away”, Vezina said.

The 40-50% of items that don’t sell move onto the next step of their journey, which includes being salvaged, sent to regional buyers, repurposed, or sent overseas. 

In 2019, GIVE was able to prevent 1.4 million lbs of clothing and 82K lbs of shoes out of local landfills, which is good news, however, still, resource intensive. And, it doesn’t solve the problem of overproduced and over-consumed clothing. 

On top of all that, Goodwill is not an option for everyone. 

Nelson shared this:

“Twenty years ago, when we had a much smaller space at the recycling center, all of the donated clothes that we could not sell were sent to a Goodwill in the Minneapolis area, but then Goodwill discontinued accepting the clothes. We then were able to find another vendor who would accept our excess or un-sellable clothes that they would either donate to third world countries or make rags with them, but then they also discontinued accepting those bales of clothes. 

We did go through an expansion process for the store so that we could receive and sell more items overall, and so we are able to put more clothes out than we had, but at this time since we have not been able to find any other outlet for the clothes we cannot sell still ends up being disposed of.”

The issue Nelson mentioned is extremely common. It’s getting more and more expensive to recycle textiles (the city of Minneapolis used to accept textiles for recycling but discontinued the program due to the rising cost), and as mentioned above, outsourced resources have become very limited. 

Possible solutions

Local community members recognize the need for increased access to affordable clothing (especially with First and Second clothing for at minimum a few months), and an outlet for passing along clothing you no longer need to help keep these items out of the landfill.

Groups like Cook County Zero Waste, the Cook County Local Energy Project, U of M Extension, North House Folk School, Sawtooth Mountain Clinic - Early Childhood Connections, and more are working to host free community clothing swaps. 

On Saturday, November 5, 2022, from 10:00am - 2:00pm, there is a free Community Clothing Swap at the Cook County Community Center (you can find out more about the event here). This swap will include mending stations, so you can bring items in to get repaired or learn how to do the repairs yourself!

Additionally, there is a free community Kids Clothing Swap on Saturday, November 12, 2022, at 10am - 1pm. You can find out more information in the image above.

Other options include reducing the amount of clothing you consume (capsule wardrobes are a great way to do this), mending and repairing the clothing you already own (YouTube can be a great resource for this), and upcycling items once they’re no longer wearable. Cleaning rags, reusable tissues, and animal bedding are just some possibilities.