Environmental benefits

Firstly, it is estimated that landfills in Michigan will be full in around seventeen years at current rates of usage. By giving people the chance to donate in our boxes rather than into the trash (and then into the landfill), in 2010, we will have saved approx 6,000. cubic yards of landfill space.

Secondly, the production of new clothes (and also the recycling of material) is significantly bad for the physical and human environment. The production of one new cotton T-shirt for example uses around 700 gallons of water and a significant quantity of pesticides … not to mention that those producing cotton goods are often underpaid and exploited. Reuse of material is preferable to recycling, as the recycling process uses energy, produces pollution, and the quality of the recycled product is lower than the original.

Thirdly, by encouraging the reuse rather than recycling of material, we assist in the fight against global warming. If you donate one cotton T-shirt and that is reused rather than another being produced, that will save the emission of around 4 lbs of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In 2010 our collection will have saved the emission of around 15 million lbs of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere (this is approximately 0.0001% of US greenhouse gas emission in 2008