Clothes Donation - A Round robin game of fashion

 In this year did you ever think of donation clothes or any form of fabric from your house.

      Most of us think of donating old clothes rather than throwing away in trash. We go drop them in donation boxes, salvation army/thrift stores or any charity which does clothes collection drives.This is done with a very good intention, "the items which we do not need any more may be useful to someone in some part of the world" . Did you ever think of this someone when buying a new shirt or blouse to add to the clutter of your closet ? Never ! Must be thinking let me buy new stuff and donate off my old things, right !  I know I was also there somepoint.

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    Its very difficult to control with the shopping spree, with all glittery store windows, coupons, discounts ,sale boards, changing fashion each season ! Keeping this temptation aside, I then wondered what happens to these thrown away clothes in USA so I researched and read. Lots has been spoken and written.Was a shocker to find out that most of these donated clothes are shipped in containers and go back to third world counties. Either sold in second hand markets or dumped to recycle like trash. So they are going back to the same place they were made.Imagine the amount of oceanic pollution we are causing by buying a product which is not localy made.Marine cargo traffic increaces, whales are dying due our greed of owning more fashionable stuff.
 I call all this  A round robin game of fashion.Our donated clothes are sorted in warehouses. All good quality stuff are sold in salvation army , goodwill stores etc and some money is used as charity for different operation of these organisations. The second grade or rag clothes as they call are sold to third world countries for a price and shipped off in containers. Firstly these companies are making money in the name of charity. Secondly countable few are benefiting from your clothes. If you see, your donated clothes are not going to keep any one warm nor add feel good factor directly. These charitable/NGO organisation somehow make you feel like angels and collect your donations in money form also.

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     Lets see how this Clothes donation round robin game goes ,

1. Grown   - say cotton grown in Texas, USA
2. Shipped - to manufacturing mills in developing countries like                  Asia or Africa
3. Fabric -  transported from mills to different Countries to mass                produce with cheeper cost.
4. Fashion Design - designed by                                   US/Europe companies                         are sent to sewing units in                    Asia/Africa.
5. Apparel/Home Decor - the final                                           product is shipped                                 back to  USA/Europe
6. Shop         - year long fun, Holiday season, Sale etc etc 
7. Closet       - use, use , get bored of it or it becomes out fashion or old.
8. Donation  - old clothes to charities, goodwill , thrift stores, recycle bin etc.
9. Dumped   - rags sold and shipped back in Asia or Africa.

The carbon footprint of each person , buying n donating is huge. For say 20$ shirt your are polluting a % portion of the nature.Is it fair on your part ? Think again and ask yourself when buying any piece of cloth and fashion accesories " Do I need it, is it useful ? " . 

With fashion industry booming in countries like India, similar thing is happening.We give the old clothes directly to our house help or donate in ngo like gounj, redcross etc.There is some assurity few clothes are surely used by poor people. Good onces are used and given at orphanages or poorer community other rags or older once are thrown as trash adding to human created waste and pollution. So if you are in India, donate your good better old clothes to add smiles and comfort.
                    " Solution where every you stay Just Buy Less Throw Less. "

I Wish and pray, hoping we stop playing this round robin game soon. I have taken a few personal steps to reverse or stop it, see my other articles in the blog to find out.

References

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30227025

 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/clothing-donation-bins-spark-turf-war-in-ontario-1.1246132

http://www.whydev.org/dont-be-clothes-minded-understanding-the-impact-of-donated-clothes/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1229857/How-16-ships-create-pollution-cars-world.html