From Guest Blogger Sophie: Easy Ways To Recycle Old Clothes
In 2016 alone, there are 26 billion pounds of textiles and clothes ending up in landfills and about 81 pounds of clothing are being thrown away. This is quite an alarming numbers considering that this study was made 2 years ago, do you have any idea how much it ends up by this year?
This shouldn’t be the case if people were exposed or thought on how to recycle since there are a lot of possible ways on how to make use of old clothes and accessories. We can always Reuse, Recycle and Repurpose.
1. Reuse
Nothing beats checking pieces of stuff at home once in a while and cutting the clutter at home. You wouldn’t think that you actually have gold hiding in your closets. Most of the time, we tend to forget that we do have some new clothes we just tossed around that we haven’t really used yet. While there are times where we just wore these clothes once or twice. Identifying these clothes and segmenting them will be much easier for us to maximize the use of our existing clothes; you’ll be very surprised that you wouldn’t need to buy on that next sale day.
2. Repurpose
Yes, you can repurpose your old clothes by giving them a brand new look. Make it a habit to make a sustainable fashion out of the existing old clothes and accessories. Here are some creative ways on how you can restyle old clothes.
Create and design a mini purse from your old jeans. Here, you can use the pocket directly or if you feel a little creative you can use the other parts of the jeans to make a purse. Add some embellishments to your liking and it’s done.
Make a scarf out of your old shirts with beautiful designs and/or a combination of a solid color and a pattern.
Make a latch rag. For those super old clothes that you can no longer re-style, give it a new life by creating something new out of it. You can make a rag in your kitchen or your bathroom door.
Make pompoms! This is great accessories at home or just something your kids can enjoy playing.
Make a tote bag! Just like making a purse, shirts can actually be transformed into making a tote bag. If you have some old shirts with inspiring messages, that would be better.
Make new pillowcases based on different worn clothes. You can make them colorful especially if the pillows will be used in your garden to add an additional accent to the place. These are just some of the possible ways on how you can reuse your old clothes using your creativity and imagination you can definitely create something more valuable.
3. Recycle
Just like in reusing old clothes, the process of segmenting old clothes and accessories accordingly is a by stepping stone. Identify which are still in mint and good condition, which are not For clothes and accessories which are still in mint and good conditions, you can either send them for consignment or can sell them directly to your group of friends. Alternatively, you can also look for online sites which accept old and recycled clothes in exchange for money. This way, you can still earn extra while not having the problem of where you should sell your old clothes online. Or you can also donate them around your city or to the less fortunate. For those which are no longer usable, see if there are drop boxes around your area which accepts old clothes that they use to transform it into something new. Or you can just use them and transform them into a nice rag.
