Fabric recycling in northern Virginia
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Anonymous
| Greetings and happy new year! Does anyone know a place that recycles fabric? We’re in Alexandria but anywhere in nova or DC would be fine. I see lots of bins around the area, but I’m wondering if anyone can vouch for a drop-off place that actually recycles, and accepts a wide variety of things. |
Anonymous
| H&M used to, but I think they stopped during Covid. I've been looking at ordering Take Back Bags (fordays.com). |
Anonymous
| AE said they take back their jeans. Not sure if that's outdated info or if it varies by store |
Anonymous
| You could also try a Buy Nothing group or similar… people who sew or craft might have a use for the fabric. |
Anonymous
| If it's 100% cotton it can be composted. |
Anonymous
H&M still does, but Google these terms h&m fabric recycling expose It's very hard to find anywhere that does anything correct due to a global glut. I went back to throwing non-resaleable things out. I think landfill in US or incineration might be better than shipping overseas to sit in a trashpile. |
Anonymous
| Goodwill does |
Anonymous
I once had a conversation at Goodwill. He mentioned that when Goodwill gets unusable items, they spend their resources on sorting, transporting etc. While they do hopefully get reused in some way, their goal with donations is to resell them to fund their mission (training/job skills) They are not a recycling facility. If you donate some clothes and some end up getting recycled for whatever reason, thats fine...but but giving them a piie of ripped, torn, stained items for them to deal with takes away from the funding they have. I now only donate wearable clothes. Just a PSA. |
Anonymous
|
Clothing?
Or left over fabric by the yard from sewing projects? If it is actual new fabric, try Fab Scrap out of NYC and Phillie. https://www.instagram.com/fab_scrap?igsh=MTFxY2JnemwxajF1dg== |
Anonymous
|
Falls Church Recyling Center takes textiles:
https://www.fallschurchva.gov/449/Recycling-Center |
Anonymous
| It's best to just Buy Less. Check out the documentary "Buy Now" on Netflix. |
Anonymous
| I gave up trying to find a place and now I send items in to Retold. It isn’t cheap to buy the bags but they run sales regularly. |
Anonymous
| MOMS |
Anonymous
| I hadn't heard of Trashies or Retold, but I think I'll do it. I've been needing to do a clean out of old underwear, solo socks, worn out pjs/gym clothes, torn towels. I know those are not going to be used at a donation place. I don't mind paying for the bags if they are actually getting recycled properly. |
Anonymous
|
It’s all fake.
If there is any market for recycling fabric it would make way more sense to use remnants and scraps from factories and I’m sure they haven’t exhausted that supply. All the other stuff is just to make you feel better about buying more new stuff. |