Second Nature What Actually Happens to Your Clothing Donations?
[This episode originally aired April 2,2025] The secondhand clothing market isn't equipped for textile recycling. So when your donated clothes don't sell, where do they end up?
With the rise of overconsumption and fast fashion, clothes have piled up in thrift stores, landfills, and incinerators around the world. Countries like Ghana and Chile are dealing with fashion waste from countries like the U.S., UK, and China, and the impacts are vast.
Mountains of clothes lead to fires, polluted waterways, dying ocean life, and lost livelihoods. So how do we stop the cycle? How can we donate with purpose and dignity, and get fashion brands to actually take accountability for the full lifecycle of their clothes?
Listen to hear what our community does with their used clothes, how a new law could force companies to clean up their act, and how Los Angeles's Suay Sew Shop is dealing with the untenable amount of clothing donations from wildfire relief.
➡️ If you want to support Suay Sew Shop, you can browse their site here and contribute to their Textiles Aren't Trash fire relief campaign. By the way, you can earn rewards for Suay purchases and donations in the Commons app!
🌎 See photos of our contributors and find further reading in the full show notes.
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Episode Credits
- Listener contributions: Holly Kane, Maya Roman, Nate Rauh-Bieri, Nick
- Editing and engineer: Evan Goodchild
- Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham
- (00:00) - Introduction
- (02:45) - Mirrored catastrophes in Ghana and California amplify the clothing crisis
- (06:43) - Community voices: What do you do with clothes you don't want anymore?
- (12:00) - n interview with Sumaq Alvarado del Aguila, one of the leaders at SUAY Sew Shop — an LA-based vertical sewing and production shop that's recycling millions of pieces of clothing
- (30:17) - Sanchali shares progress for clothing company regulation and responsibility
- (35:12) - Last looks and points to remember