Photo by Howard Lake
The following is an excerpt from Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion (2012, Portfolio/Penguin) by Elizabeth L. Cline
Since the end of the 19th century in both Europe and the United States, philanthropic groups have been involved in the collection and distribution of clothes to the poor. The Salvation Army started up in the United States in 1870, at a time when the U.S. population was less than 40 million and almost all clothing was still handmade. It wasn’t until the late 1950s that charities opened retail outlets, and their income began to come primarily from the sale of used clothing. Charitable clothing donations from that point were used indirectly, by first selling clothes and then using the proceeds to fund charitable works. This is how clothing donations function today.
SUPPLY MEETS DEMAND
Then consumer culture set in. During the post-war period, growing incomes allowed Americans to buy more clothes. Our wardrobes became diversified, with juniors’ clothes, office clothes, sports clothes, and streetwear becoming common. This was when charities started processing enormous yields of used but still wearable clothing.
Most Americans are convinced that another person truly desires our unwanted clothes. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
But it wasn’t until clothing prices started declining in recent decades that charities started seeing barely used and even unworn discarded clothing. Throughout the 1990s, donations to Goodwill increased 10 percent per year. In 2000, donors nationwide provided all Goodwill operations with more than 1 billion pounds of clothes. In 2010, Goodwill processed 163 million pounds of used clothing and household goods.
Most Americans are thoroughly convinced there is another person in their direct vicinity who truly needs and wants our unwanted clothes. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Charities long ago passed the point of being able to sell all of our wearable unwanted clothes. They started to look for other solutions. A wiping rag industry sprang up to turn unsellable clothing into rags for industrial purposes. Still, anything left over went into the landfill.