What Happens to All Those Unwanted Clothes? Part 1

What Happens to All Those Unwanted Clothes? Part 1

No one can argue that we Westerns create more garbage than ever before.

Have you ever thought about what happens to your old clothes when you throw them away or give them to charity?

Some clothes are too soiled or damaged to resell so they are thrown away, but where to and what happens to them after that?

The East May Have the Answer

India is known for its universal motto of ‘nothing goes to waste.’

In fact, Business Ghana reports that one town, Panipat, is called the “cast off capital” of the world because every day hundreds of ton of clothes from across the UK and the US, and other countries, are shipped there.

India is the top importer of used clothes according to the most recent data available.

What Happens to All Those Unwanted Clothes

Mountains of jackets, skirts, cardigans, berets and even school uniforms sit in warehouses across the city. From high-street brands to luxury labels – most clothes donated to charity end up there.

Piles of torn and used clothing that would have otherwise ended up as landfill, are also added and reused.

Workers are bent over large blades, shredding clothes. They are ripping everything apart to remove zippers, buttons and labels.

Clothes are fed into a bigger machine which mixes wool, silk, cotton and any man-made fiber like polyester and feeds into a carding machine which starts to spin into yarn.

This yarn had a variety of uses, including sewing up new garments.

Find out what you can do to help reduce this terrible waste and save the planet.