Give away that unwanted clothing | Column
Studies show that nearly two-thirds of new clothing items reach landfills within a year of being sold — and that the vast majority can still be worn. To help reverse this trend, we can care for our clothes, repair them and buy new garments, ideally durable ones, only when truly necessary. At times, however, some clothing simply has to go, so how can we part with it sustainably?
Clothing that is still wearable, clean and undamaged can be donated to a nonprofit. Locally, the Goodwill stores in Brunswick and Topsham are go-to choices. Lesser-known alternatives include Little Sparrows Clothing Closet in Brunswick, a provider of free clothing for all; Freeport Community Services; and Epilepsy Foundation New England, which both picks up donations and maintains drop-off bins in Bath, Freeport and elsewhere in our region.
Customer shopping carts sit full at the Goodwill Outlet in Gorham on March 19. (Daryn Slover/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image
The Buy Nothing Project enables you to give away wearable clothing using the internet. Join the Brunswick/Bath/Topsham group via Facebook or else connect with people in your area with the BuyNothing app.
On the for-profit side, Apparel Impact accepts wearable clothing in its many bins. In Brunswick, go to 42 Bath Road (formerly China Rose Restaurant), 232 Bath Road (behind Antigoni’s Pizza), 9 Industry Road (public works facility) or 1 Columbus Drive (American Legion post). Bins in Topsham are located at Topsham Fair Mall (parking lot in front of Dick’s) and 97 Townsend Way (transfer station). In Bath, you can find a bin at 851 Washington St. (First Baptist Church), while locations in Freeport include 100 Hedgehog Mountain Road (transfer station) and 457 U.S. Route 1 (Woods + Waters). Note that town transfer stations may limit bin access to local residents.
In the case of garments that can no longer be worn, there are fewer options. Apparel Impact takes such items, as does Goodwill if they are bagged separately and labeled as recycling. Of course, worn-out, dirty or damaged clothes can live on as rags.
Applying the concept of sustainability to our clothing, let’s first get the most we can out of what we already have. And when we do find ourselves parting with apparel, there are plenty of options for giving it away, whether wearable or not.
David Conwell belongs to the nationwide advocacy organization Citizens’ Climate Lobby and is a former member of Brunswick’s Sustainability Committee.
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