Mountains and mountains of used clothes lie scattered all over the garage after completing our 30-day decluttering challenge or your mission of tidying up your closet! Your wardrobe, like Mike’s, is now looking super neat, fresh, and light, and you’re probably feeling great about it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the monster mountain lurks like a shadow from beyond the grave peeking out its ugly head to remind you that for now, all you’ve done is shift the clutter to a new location. The burning question is what the hell do you do with that massive pile of used clothes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bag it, bin it. Toss it in the trash! Get it out of here!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The instinctive response of most of our collective brains to the monster mountain. Fast and effective that would be. It’s a thought that most people on the planet have when faced with a mountain of unwanted clothes. In part, this response is ignorance, created by the convenience of the throwaway culture that permeates modern society. Our waste collection system is so convenient and efficient that it makes our trash just go away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You put it out, bin guys come, and on you go living in your clean domain. Honestly, I cannot blame you for not thinking about what actually happened to the old clothes you tossed. Nor for not pondering the potential environmental impact of that simple moment of disposal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a young age, we have been taught this preprogrammed action of getting rid of unwanted items. The other part of the story is a lack of awareness and knowledge of the alternative options that one has for disposal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coupled with this is the time, effort, and energy required to execute these alternatives versus just binning the unwanted clothes. For some it’s not about knowledge or awareness but simply the accessibility and ease of the other options that prevent them from executing a better option. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sobering statistic on the disposal of clothing in the trash is that Globally a staggering 92 million tonnes of clothes end up in landfills every year with 1.2 million tonnes of that in the UK alone. Another crazy statistic is that the average garment is worn just seven times before being thrown away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sorry, hang on. You mean that most of us bought something, wore it 7 times or less, and threw it away? That’s just bonkers if you think about it. The energy, resources, and impact of the creation of that item cannot be justified for such low usage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast fashion and their super rapid releases of new fashion lines have created a throwaway fashion culture that is slowly killing our planet. The environmental impact of fast fashion is no longer deniable and while this article will not go into the details, we will return to it as a story for another day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take a closer look at your pile of discarded items, you may find that some of the items have not even been worn or have only been worn once or twice. Statistically, this study<\/a> estimated that 50 percent of clothes in people’s closets are not worn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hopefully, the above stats will serve as a motivator for you to begin the process to change your binning habit and rethink your purchasing and consumption patterns. If you would like to gain some more insight watch this 1-minute video. <\/p>\n\n\n\n