From Closet to Landfill: The Hidden Impact of Textile Waste and How to Reduce It

Ever drive by a cluttered donation bin and wonder where all the clothes go? The answer might be less green than you think. Goodwill, for example, estimates that only about half of the clothes they receive are suitable for their retail stores. They will throw away any clothes that are wet or soiled, and send lower quality items to outlets and salvage dealers. Whatever remains after that heads to landfill. 

Unfortunately, in 2018 over 11 million tons of textiles ended up in American landfills. Once in landfills, textiles contribute to the toxic by-products that landfills produce. The first by-product is known as leachate. It forms as the liquids in landfills work their way through our clothes and other junk, and pick up chemicals along the way. When leachate is not properly contained it will seep into the surrounding earth. From there it can infiltrate ecosystems and even our own drinking water. 

The second by-product is emissions. As forms of organic waste including textiles break down, a substance known as 'landfill gas' is released. This gas is composed in large part by methane, a greenhouse contributor that’s 80 times worse than CO2. To give you an idea of the scale of this problem, estimates suggest landfills are responsible for an enormous 16% of America’s total methane emissions. 
Worryingly, both landfill leachate and landfill gas are now also being recognized as potent vectors for transmitting PFAS into the environment. You may have heard of these nasty guys: they’re the group of around 16,000 'forever chemicals' that are used in making consumer products, including clothes, and take over 1000 years to biodegrade. The potential health effects of PFAS are also being understood in increasingly stark terms, with exposure being linked to health issues including cancer, birth defects and liver disease.

While sending our clothes to landfill has been considered problematic for some time, it would seem that the threat it poses is just now becoming clear.

So far, Retold has diverted over 200 tons of textile material from landfills and we’re not stopping there! Join us in our mission and help us by recycling your unwanted clothes today.