julie_labbe2

I really had no idea. I’m not here to guilt anyone because, listen, I’ve been throwing away food scraps for years and just now learning what that does to the environment.

But it kind of blows my mind that the average person in the US throws away the majority of the textiles they don’t want versus recycling them. I haven’t looked at other countries but curious to see what this looks like worldwide.

I know throwing stuff away is easy and convenient, but there are so many ways to get the things you don’t want into the right hands versus our landfills.

A few ideas:
- Have a clothing swap with your friends
-Sell clothes on Poshmark, or my teenage son sells clothes to his friends for less than they’d pay at a thrift store.
-Donate clothes to a vintage clothing store, or sometimes they’ll pay top dollar for your Mickey Mouse t-shirt.
- Donate to Goodwill, ARC, church ministries or homeless shelters.
- Use pillow cases to cover fragile platters, vases, silver items that are stored away until you need them.
- Bring blankets, sheets, drapes to transitional living homes, domestic violence shelters, youth emergency shelters.
- Donate suits and professional clothing to Dress for Success or Hire Heroes, USA.

These are just a few ideas. They take a little time but big donation centers like VOA and ARC will pick up from your home.

My customer’s new solar system is helping to offset greenhouse gas production. The equivalent of planting 1,670 trees over 25 years, avoiding 161,425 miles of driving. And he’s saving money.