As part of HuffPostsReclaim project, HuffPost Style will focus the month of September on simple ways to educate yourself on becoming a better consumer.Giving away used clothes may sound simple: You drop them off at a donation center, and then theyre sold to somebody who can re-use them. Right'Not quite. In reality, donated clothing often takes a much longer journeybefore meeting its ultimate fate. In the end, it may get re-sold. But it also may end up in the trash, joining the more than 12 million pounds of American textile wastethat was sent to landfills during 2013.And that benefits no one.Goodwill is one of the biggest U.S. landing points for donated clothes: Stores in New York and New Jerseyalone collected more than 85.7 million pounds of textile donations last year, Jose Medellin, director of communications for Goodwill NY/NJ, told HuffPost. And his Goodwill region is just one of164 regional Goodwill organizationsacross the U.S. and Canada.As youre probably starting to realize, it takes a ton of effort to guide your clothes from the Goodwill donation bin to their final resting place. Knowing how Goodwill works can help you make smarter decisions when deciding if another jeans purchase is really worth it for you, for the donations staff and for the environment.Step 1: The Goodwill retail storeGoodwill operates more than 3,200 individual stores, Kyle Stewart, director of donated goods retail, told HuffPost. When you donate a bag of clothing at a store, workers most likely parse through it to determine what can be sold and what cant: Wet or mildew-y clothes are eliminated, but everything else is fair game.Ray Tellez, the vice president of retail operations for Goodwill Southern California, said stores in his region track how long each piece of clothing has been on the retail floor. If an item doesnt sell within four weeks, its sent onward in the process.Step 2: A Goodwill outletYup, even Goodwill has outlets. Whatever doesnt sell on the retail floor goes to a separate Buy the Pound outlet storeor a99 cent Goodwill store. Prices are kept ultra-low to encourage purchases, Tellez said.At these stores, the goal is to liquidate, he told HuffPost. We want to try and keep as much out of the landfill as possible.Step 3: AuctionWhatever isnt sold in outlets moves on to Goodwill auctions, live events where attendees bid on bins of donated items without knowing precisely whats inside.An auction bin might sell for as low as $35, which is a stellar value, according to Tellez.Step 4: Textile RecyclersThen comes the big move: If clothes werent able to sell in those first three stages of the process,Goodwill sends them to textile recycling organizations, Stewart said. S.M.A.R.T. is one such organization whose independent member companies work to give clothing new life. On average, 45 percent of clothing that makes it to S.M.A.R.T.is either re-sold into the U.S. used clothing industry or sent overseas into markets with more demand, marketing director Kathy Walsh told HuffPost.But this isnt necessarily a good thing. Obviously, re-selling clothes into the U.S. secondhand market just encourages them to make the cycle all over again. And sending clothes overseas canmajorly hinder the textile industries in developing countries, robbing locals of jobs and income.Beyond that, 30 percent of donated clothes at S.M.A.R.T. get cut into rags for industrial use, and 20 percent is processed into a soft fiber filling for furniture, home insulation, car sound-proofing and more.But what about landfills'If S.M.A.R.T. recyclers find clothes that are wet, moldy or contaminated, they send them to landfills, Walsh said. The amount they send is small ' just five percent of all donations ' but all adds up tothe ridiculous amount of clothing waste in landfills nationwide.According to Walsh, nearly 95 percent of all clothing waste could be reused and recycled. We just arent disposing of it properly.For starters, you should never, ever throw your clothes in the garbage, Medellin says. Instead, take them to a Goodwill or other donation center. If theyre wet, moldy or otherwise hazardous, then contact your citys sanitation department and ask how best to dispose of them.Of course, the easiest way to prevent clothing waste is to avoid buying clothes you dont need.Keep a clean closet, and a cleaner planet will be waiting for you later.More stories like this:This Family Went A Whole Year Without Buying New ClothesThese African Countries Dont Want Your Used Clothing AnymoreThe Chilling Moment This Father Realized Where His Kids Clothes Come FromBefore Buying More Clothes At H&M, Read ThisSomething To Think About Before Donating Your ClothesThis Company Is Basically A Hospital For Sad, Damaged ClothesWhy This Company Wants You To Fall In Love With Peoples Old Jeans -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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