BEFORE YOU DONATE OLD CLOTHES

"According to sustainable apparel consultant Shannon Whitehead, here is what actually happens to your old suits, shirts, and sweaters — part of the 4.7 billion pounds of clothing donated by Americans annually — once you shove them into that big metal drop box: Some of the items end up in landfills; some of them get recycled into rags and insulation; and much of the clothing ends up in the markets of sub-Saharan Africa. When they arrive at charity shops, the clothes are sorted, with only about 10 percent deemed good enough for sale in the retail shop; the rest is sold to textile recyclers, which ship tons of clothing in good enough shape for resale to countries including Ghana, Cameroon, Congo, Tanzania, and Rwanda." http://shine.yahoo.com/fashion/the-truth-about-what-happens-to-the-old-clothes-you-donate-183023908....