It looks quite bleak. However, thanks to a targeted social media ad, I found a textile-recycling subscription service that was the answer I was looking for: Trashy. Buy a “Take Back Bag” for $20 and you can send clean, used clothes, bedsheets, shoes and even old Halloween costumes. The bags come in packs of one or three. There’s also a “Take Back Tech Box” for $25, where you can send back old electronics that are gathering dust in a drawer. In return, you earn points for discounts or gift cards at major retailers like Cozy Earth and Nuuli. You can also shop and earn points on partner sites like Parachute. So, if you’re looking for an excuse to get rid of last season’s trends that even the thrift store wouldn’t want (goodbye, puffy quilted tote bags; I don’t understand why it was a trend), this is it.
trash to treasure
Dr. Andre West, director of The Zeiss Extension (ZTE) at North Carolina State University’s Wilson College of Textiles, confirmed the UN and EPA data in his research. And he says the problem of textile waste is getting worse.
He says that fast fashion is largely responsible for this. “In the United States, there will be a greater amount [of waste] than in the past. “I don’t think it will slow down at this point.”
Furthermore, it is hard to trace where textile waste goes, and thus, calculating such exact numbers can be quite a daunting task. “It is also difficult to determine [data]Because trash all goes down different paths – it doesn’t go into one big pile. Some of it is thrown away, some is burnt, some is cut and sent to other countries,” he says.
Dr. West painted a picture for me of not only how big a deal the procedure is, but how impactful a business like this could potentially be. He says, “Sorting products is still in its infancy in terms of how to do it properly. Even if you sort by color, they are all made of different materials with buttons, zippers and linings.” They also told me that sometimes items can be mislabeled. This impacts recycling because breaking down each of these fibers requires a separate, often time-consuming process, so having a service like Trashy Handles is a potential game-changer.
What can be recycled?
Photograph: Julia Forbes
In my take back bag went a duvet cover that my dog had made a hole in and some old linens that were the physical version of a walking dead Zombie. You can also throw away clothes that are not suitable for donation. Ashamed to tell you, but that stained sweater? No one is going crazy about it at the thrift store, but it’s perfect for trashy recycling purposes. Trashy accepts a very extensive list of recyclable items (assuming they are clean), which you can find here.