ONE SMALL STEP FOR YOU, ONE GIANT LEAP TOWARDS CLOSING THE LOOP IN FASHION

where can i take worn out, unwearable garments?

We could make this list real short and tell you that most Goodwill locations accept ANY and all textiles, despite their condition, so long as they’re not wet or contaminated with hazardous materials. To make things better for the real life people who receive and sort out your donations, make sure your textiles are arriving clean, and we recommend putting scrap fabric and worn out clothes in a separate bag, labelled as such.

I live in Seattle, any local recycling programs?

We’re glad you asked, because, yes there are! King County funds a program called Threadcycle that will recycle basically any garment, shoes, or accessories. Most of the clothes are in good condition and are put into second-hand stores, some are converted into items like industrial cleaning rags, others are reprocessed into fibers to be used for new products like insulation, and the remaining (5%) is un-recyclable. Check here for drop-off locations.

but what about my old underwear & intimates?

Aside from the two options above, you can also donate your old panties and bras to Hanky Panky’s program, Lingeriecycle and your stockings to Swedish Stockings.

Hanky Panky will send you a proprietary envelope, at no cost, to fill with washed items to be sent back to them (you pay for shipping back, however). If you’re curious about what they do with the materials, the textile is converted into carpet piling, and metal from underwires are sent to a textile recycling facility. They eat the processing costs of this program because they feel a responsibility for the entire life-cycle of the products they make/sell, and call out all other companies to do the same. Besides being a rad company, their panties are ultra comfy and last for years (yes years!). This is not a sponsored resource, just a product we think is pretty great!

Swedish Stockings make some of the best quality stockings out there and have a Recycling Club that gives you a 10% discount when you send them at least 3 pairs of unusable stockings, of any brand. They have one mail-in location in the US, which is located in Mercer Island, a cheap and quick option for us Seattlites.

how about shoes?

Nike has a program called Reuse-A-Shoe that accepts any brand of worn down sneakers, (but no other shoe types) and turns them into what they call “Nike Grind,” a regenerated material that they use footwear, clothing, and track and other athletic surfaces. 71% of their products use this material. For those local to Seattle, the downtown Nike store is our closest drop-off location.

Asics, Adidas, and other retails have caught onto this trend and accept worn down shoes at participating locations a well.

For any shoes that are not sneakers, you can take them to a Goodwill location.