Save Our Landfills From Textile and Clothing Waste; Reuse What You Have!

 

American textile waste, according to the EPA's 1988 study on the United States Generation of Solid Waste, accounts for over 3.9 million tons of the solid waste stream. Post-consumer textile waste is most typically garments or household items like old towels and rags that the owner discards because the items are outgrown, worn out, damaged, or have gone out of fashion. Often, these items are given to charity, but more typically they are thrown into the trash and help to fill our municipal landfills to the bursting point.

Perfectly good clothes wasted, when over a billion people on earth struggle every day to have water, food, clothing, and medicines. This is a basic human need being thrown away.

While donating your old clothing to charity is a start; why not think about reusing the clothing you have instead of buying new? It will save your family money, so you can spend the money on food or education for your children.

In the photo above you see my daughter’s creative idea for reinventing a t-shirt. On a rainy day a few weeks ago I cleaned out one of my closets, separating items out I want to use for garden work. A friend of mine, Ben, gave me this Leapfish t-shirt earlier this year and when my daughter spotted the word “Leapfish”, she snatched it up and begged to keep it as a sleep shirt.

Within thirty minutes she had redesigned the t-shirt; filling it with hand drawn leaping fish. Lovely. Good for the environment. A perfect idea to help teach a child about the value of reusing what you have so you can keep it out of the waste stream.

Help your community save a landfill – make a difference!

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Comments

[Primary Work at Home]

Great idea! I like it and I will share this one to my friends. Thanks for sharing.

[Shawna Coronado]

Thanks Shalene - this is an awesome idea!

Shawna

[Shalene]

I was checking out Youtube and seen someone make tshirt yarn. You could make long strips of tshirt yarn and make blankets, bags, rugs, there are an endless amount of project you could do with an old tshirt