People in the United States purchase considerably more clothing than they did 20 years ago. On average, they tend to purchase twice as much as in decades past. While some Americans will donate gently worn items to charitable organizations such as The Military Order of the Purple Heart, others will throw them away. In addition to being wasteful and contributing to landfills, these clothes could be recycled and/or worn again.
If you’re not sure when to donate clothes, you can, of course, do so all year long. Since the weather is growing warmer, you may want to begin with your family’s spring and summer outfits and accessories. After that, you can look through your family’s cold-weather clothes, coats, scarves, and boots. If there are items that haven’t been worn for a while, or won’t be worn again for 6 months or longer, this may be the perfect time to make a charitable clothing donation.
When you have items other than clothing, such as household textiles, dishes, and toys, you can also donate these to Purple Heart. If you’ve recently purchased electronics, you can donate the previous versions to wounded veterans charities as well. If you’re not sure what can be donated, you can contact Purple Heart for more information. When items are broken, many can be easily repaired or recycled.
Americans donate roughly 4.7 billion pounds of clothing every year. Many individuals may be encouraged and inspired to make donations when they learn their friends and family are doing so on social media sites.
A recent survey showed that 70% of social media users will respond to stories posted by friends making charitable donations. Once you have your donations organized, you can let your family and friends know when to donate clothes and household items, too.
If you are in the process of gathering clothes together to make a charitable donation, these items can be conveniently picked up by GreenDrop. In addition to having mobile trailers that collect around 100 tons of donations every week, GreenDrop also has roughly 30 convenient drop-off locations.