Yes, Someone Wants Your Old Undies

One of the most interesting aspects of working towards being Zero Waste is how one becomes a bit of a hoarder.

I have a box in our closet full of clothes and purses that I have listed for sale on Poshmark but that I no longer wear. I find myself holding onto random bags that I know will come in handy when I give away things to my BuyNothing Group. There are scraps of textiles in a bag and old clothes full of holes because although I don't have time to recycle them properly right at that minute, I know I will have time eventually. We have a collection of squeaky clean glass jars and a few to-go containers that I cleaned out all because I know we will need to give food away to someone sometime soon.

And then last week, the mound of old undies, bras and socks with too many holes in them became too big to ignore any longer so I finally had to do something about it.

I try to responsibly dispose of my old textiles always- whether that be recycling, upcycling, reselling or donating to reliable organizations. I take this all very seriously because 85% of all clothes end up in the landfill or are burned. The average American throws away about 81 lbs or 37kg of clothes each year (that's the weight of a child!). The process of making all of these clothes is highly toxic and pollutes the land and water (about 20% of global water waste is attributed to the fashion industry). Read more about this issue here.

But recycling undergarments is difficult. Most places that will take used clothes and textiles (Goodwill, Suay, H&M, etc. read more about it here) will not take your used undergarments. There are reasons for this and I understand, but it does make properly disposing of such items extremely inconvenient. So I did some research and it turns out it isn't so bad after all.

Here is what I found:

• If you live in Los Angeles and your undergarments are still usable, you can donate to LA on Cloud 9. They are a non-profit helping the homeless peoples and animals of LA (they are doing incredible work so please keep them in mind for many other items as well!). My items were too far gone so this wasn't an option for us.
  

• If your bras are beyond repair and upcycling, you can send them for recycling to Harper Wilde, The Bra Recyclers, or Knickey.
  

• For women's, men's and kids' underwear, go to Knickey or Parade.
  

• For socks and tights, I could only find the program at Knickey.

Because we had a mix of everything, I sent our stuff to Knickey. I paid $5 for a shipping label, put everything in a box and dropped it all off at the Post Office.

Once Knickey receives your box, they will send you a coupon for a free pair of their underwear for your next order with them. I personally don't mind spending the nominal fee to know that these textiles won't end up in a landfill and add to the pollution of our planet. From my research, it looks like their program used to be free but that model was not sustainable. They are, after all, a business trying to do good while they still survive as a company. I'm just grateful that there is a place that will take these old items and reuse them in beneficial ways (they turn everything into insulation, carpet padding and furniture batting). Definitely something to feel good about!