Where do your old clothes go when you donate them?

T Shirt Travels:The story of secondhand clothes and third world debt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeCIlgUeYlM"]YouTube- T-Shirt Travels

 

I watched 10 minutes of this, I don't have the attention span to watch the whole thing right now. I did find it interesting though and plan on coming back to finish it. I also am curious on what secondhand stores do this? Is there a way to give clothing directly to them? (I know that's probably a stupid question because I know you can give money to them which buys them things but I mean actual clothes, I have almost given more than I can afford due to recent problems so thats not an option.) I always give (as well as buy) from Goodwill but I plan on asking them what happens to the leftover clothing. I feel silly for never asking myself this question before.

Excellent story. I wish it was a shorter video so more people would watch it!

 

The video details how Goodwill and others actually bundle and sell alot of the old clothes to wholesale brokers. The wholesale brokers then in turn ship them to places like South Africa and flip the bundles onto guys like the one in the doc. He then has to scrape by on what he makes off of it. Part of the point of the doc is illustrating how there used to be a thriving textile industry, now they are selling 2nd hand clothes from the western world as the industry. It also goes into the requirements set down by IMF and World Bank for aid. Those requirements may be set up so the only way to meet them is to go further into debt. But, it's mostly about the 2nd hand clothes.

 

Thank you for sharing. I passed it along on Facebook.