Before we dive right into the main content of this blog post, here are a few hard facts about our fashion and clothing consumption for you:
- The disposed of clothing and textile items can take up to 200 years to decompose completely in landfills.
- As per a World Wildlife Report, it takes around 2,700 liters of water to make a single cotton shirt.
- Another statistic revealed that the amount of clothing disposed of by Americans has doubled in the last twenty years from seven to fourteen million tons.
Textile waste is a serious issue that seems deceivingly harmless. What seems like an innocent hoarding due to our countless self-pampering shopping sessions is highly detrimental to environmental health.
How?
When clothes end up in landfills, they release tons of toxic greenhouse gases into the environment that adds to global warming. Additionally, the higher the amount of textile waste ends up in landfills, the faster the pits fill. An important thing to note here is that apart from our clothes, textile waste also includes linens (towels, bathrobes, and shower gear), furniture, sheets, carpets, tires, and footwear. Yet, astonishingly only 15 percent of the textile waste goes for clothing recycling in NY and all around America.
In the face of growing pollution, global warming, and dwindling natural resources, here’s how your choice for best ways to recycle clothing can create a difference:
ENSURE JUDICIOUS USE OF LANDFILLS
If there’s one thing you must know about landfills, it takes our hard-earned important tax dollars to create and maintain them. Throwing up unused and unnecessary clothes in the trash eventually ends up in landfills while taking up the valuable space that could have been used to dispose of something else. This is one of the vital reasons why we encourage people to opt for our recycling bin program. Switching to a well-planned recycling program is responsible and prevents the possibility of adding burdensome garbage.
HELP THE LESS PRIVILEGED
In most cases, when you opt for clothing recycling in NY, they get sold at a resale or thrift store depending upon the condition of your clothes and resale value. This way, you help benefit the community who might not even have access to essential casual gear.
SAVE ENERGY
From manufacturing, treatment to the assembly process and fabric material, the entire process of a clothing item reaching you can be highly energy-intensive. As we mentioned in the introductory part, it requires around 2700 gallons of water to create one cotton shirt. Throwing them away would require greater energy expenditure to recreate them. Our recycling bin program ensures that clothes are used to their full lifespan while causing less stress on the environment and energy wastage.
MAKE YOUR LIFE MORE EFFICIENT
A decluttered and organized closet leads to an efficient lifestyle. Excessive shopping and the fast-fashion culture have given rise to hoarding behavior. Apart from reducing efficiency across your space, people end up spending a significant amount of the day just deciding what to wear. You will be surprised by how much ease and seamless your life is with this minimalist lifestyle.
Clothes probably fall somewhere at the bottom of the sustainability list when someone tries to make their life greener. However, with a bit of concise effort and smart thinking, one can significantly enhance environmental health. When it comes to your search keywords for “clothing recycling near me,” EPM’s recycling bin program helps you meet your purpose with the highest quality methods that assure your positive intentions while creating income avenues. With the festive season around the corner, take a step to be the reason for someone’s smile with us! Browse our website to learn more about our program.
