To date we have diverted 10,000lbs from the landfill or from being exported overseas!
We are so excited to have reached this milestone. Our Goal was to reach this by the end of December 2022 and instead we reached it at the beginning of October 2022.
There has been lots of learning along the way on this journey to reduce textile waste. We have gone deep into researching what happens to textiles when they are exported, sent to thrift stores and even the environmental impacts of when they end up in landfills.
Did you know that only 20% of what the larger thrift stores receives end up on the floor for resale and out of that approximately 10% of what is on the floor sells every month. The 80% that does not make it to the sales floor are exported to third world countries where only 10-20% are resold and the rest end up in their landfills.
And did you know that it can take 200+ years for textiles to break down in a landfill. And when they start to break down they release methane gas into the atmosphere, as well as release toxic chemicals that leach into the ground water if the landfill is not properly sealed, which is the case in 3rd world countries, and even some 1st world countries.
Have you ever been curious about textile recycling? Have you ever asked why we don’t recycle textiles like we recycle plastic? Well when it comes to textiles it is more complex. In the fashion and textile industry there are so many blends and weaves. We have synthetics mixed with natural fibers, blends of different natural fibers together, and blends of multiple synthetics together. There are also multiple qualities of synthetic and natural fibers. All these factors make textile recycling more challenging. There are some companies starting to practice chemical recycling for textiles and we are still looking into this to learn more about the environmental impacts.
We use all this information as inspiration for our Textile diversion program. With the really good clothes we get in we send the kids clothes to Jammy Jo’s children's Boutique out of Leduc to resell, and with the adult clothes we will be posting them on Poshmark to resell. The money from those sales will help pay for our diversion program and help us expand the program. With any of the larger textile pieces we remake those into new lifestyle products, and all the really damaged clothing are sanitized and shred. We have started using the shred for yoga blocks and other projects.
We are so grateful to all of you for your continued support, textile drop offs, and purchases. Without you we couldn’t have reached 10,000lbs! We applaud you for your contribution as this is a win for all of us together!
Our next goal is 20,000 lbs!
Thank you,
Katrina