By Swapdom, Source: Eco Fashion World

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a whopping 13.1 million tons of textile waste are sent by Americans to landfills every year (and that’s a stat from 2011!). While some of this waste is recovered for recycling and export, rescued and reused material only totals about 14% of clothes and shoes sent to the trash. Textile waste is a big problem. If this is news to you, you’re in good company, as almost 80% of Americans have no idea clothing waste is a problem in such dire need of addressing.

So, what’s a fashionable gal or guy to do? Your first instinct might be to donate clothing, but insightful news reports by NPR have tied the stats together in a neat package: only 20% of donated duds actually make it onto thrift store racks. The remaining 80%, roughly 3.8 billion pounds of textiles, are ferried off to textile recyclers. Of this 80%, 20% are fashioned into a new fiber – often insulation, pillow stuffing, or carpet padding, and 45% are exported. Once exported, they’re bundled and sold abroad, which can be helpful, but still creates a massive carbon footprint.

Read the rest at: co Fashion World