Now if you choose to place your clothes at a recycling box or a donation box, there are several routes where your old pair of jeans or t-shirt may end up. A lot of the items that we donate for recycling actually end up in the developing countries and sold there for very cheap – sounds good right ? well, not exactly. The small businesses and small designers designing and using local textiles and materials may get affected and overwhelmed with the competing mass of foreign very low priced garments. Thus, discouraging local businesses in these countries. 

Now if it is not sent to the developing countries out there, it is collected and sorted where natural textiles are sorted into three major categories : Reuse, Rags,  and fiber. 

Many of the donated and collected clothing is actually reusable which is then sent to thrift shops and then the rags are sorted out again according to color (so that no dye is needed and no energy is needed) and material then shredded and sometimes used as insulation or as filling in mattresses or transformed into yarn. 

So next time you’re about to click check out, wait it out for a week and run through a checklist of whether this item is of good quality, how was it made and what conditions did the workers produce it under , is it a timeless piece that can last you for a long time and can be worn in multiple occasions? 

Every topic is a broad topic and sustainability is no exception. There are many aspects to sustainable fashion that consumers have to be aware of and with a more conscious and aware consumers, brands are being pushed further to be transparent about the journey of their production process and their working conditions of the staff. 

We would love to see your thrift shop or clothing transformation to cleaner and better world and until next time tracers, stay healthy! stay strong!