Clothing Donation Statistics

Consumers today wear items 36% fewer times than they did 15 years ago

Women in the UK hoard $22 billion worth of unworn clothes in their closets

20% of the average wardrobe is not worn

60% of people say they have more clothes than they need

1 in 3 young women consider clothes "old" after wearing them once or twice

The top reason for donating clothes is "to declutter" (72%), rather than "to help a charity"

41% of consumers feel guilty about throwing away clothes, stimulating donation turnover

59% of consumers expect brands to help them dispose of old products ethically

Social media "haul" culture increases clothing consumption by encouraging one-time wear for photos

33% of women wear clothing they consider their "favorites" less than 5 times a year due to having too many clothes

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80% of unwanted clothes are thrown away by consumers directly rather than donated

54% of consumers said they would buy more used clothing if the shopping experience was improved

Consumers keep clothing items for about half as long as they did in 2000

Only 15% of consumers responsibly recycle their old clothes

25% of consumers are willing to pay a premium for sustainably produced clothing

9 out of 10 people possess at least one item of clothing they have never worn

The average person buys 60% more items of clothing every year compared to 15 years ago

46% of consumers donated clothes specifically to make room for new purchases

Impulse buying accounts for nearly 20% of clothing purchases that end up donated or discarded

The fashion industry is responsible for 10% of annual global carbon emissions

It takes about 2,700 liters of water to make just one cotton shirt

Textile dyeing is the second largest polluter of water globally

Washing clothes releases half a million tonnes of microfibers into the ocean every year

Extending the life of a garment by 9 months reduces its carbon, water, and waste footprint by 20-30%

One pair of jeans requires approximately 7,500 liters of water to produce

The apparel industry accounts for 20% of global wastewater

Making a pair of jeans produces as much greenhouse gases as driving a car for more than 80 miles

35% of all microplastics in the ocean come from the laundering of synthetic textiles

Cotton farming is responsible for 24% of insecticides and 11% of pesticides used globally

Buying one used item reduces its carbon footprint by 82%

If everyone bought one used item this year instead of new, it would save 5.7 lbs of CO2 emissions per person

Polyester production for textiles released about 706 billion kg of greenhouse gases in 2015

Every second, the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned

Fashion produces more CO2 emissions than international flights and maritime shipping combined

Recycling 2 million tons of clothing per year is the equivalent of removing 1 million cars from US roads

Viscose production is linked to the logging of 150 million trees annually

The carbon footprint of a garment largely depends on fiber type; wool has a higher impact per kg than cotton due to methane from sheep

Conventional cotton requires more water than almost any other agricultural crop

Incinerating clothes releases toxic substances and large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere

The global secondhand apparel market will grow 3X faster than the global apparel market overall by 2027

The resale market is expected to reach $77 billion by 2025

Goodwill industries generated more than $6 billion in revenue largely from donated goods in 2019

62% of Gen Z and Millennials say they look for an item secondhand before purchasing it new

16-18% of Americans shop at thrift stores each year

Donated clothing provides the primary inventory for over 25,000 resale/consignment shops in the US

The average resale value of a luxury handbag can be up to 80% of its original retail price

70% of the world's population uses secondhand clothing

The US export market for worn clothing was valued at over $660 million in 2018

Charity shops in the UK raise around £270 million for good causes annually

Online second-hand marketplaces are growing 21 times faster than the wider retail market

40% of standard thrift store donations are resold in the store, while the rest are sold to textile recyclers

Depop has over 30 million registered users, 90% of whom are under the age of 26

53% of Americans have purchased secondhand clothing in the last 12 months

The Salvation Army operates over 7,000 centers in the US largely funded by thrift store sales

Used clothing exports from the EU increased by over 75% between 2000 and 2019

The African continent imports approximately 22% of the world’s used clothing

Pakistan is the top importer of used clothing from the United States with over $160 million in value

33 million consumers bought secondhand apparel for the first time in 2020

Resale is projected to be 2X the size of fast fashion by 2030

85% of all textiles thrown away in the US are dumped into landfills or burned

Less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing (fiber-to-fiber recycling)

45% of donated clothes received by charities are exported to developing nations

Approximately 30% of donated clothing is cut into wiping rags for industrial use

20% of donated textiles are processed into fiber for home insulation, carpet padding, and raw material

Synthetic fibers like polyester can take up to 200 years to decompose in a landfill

About 40% of used clothes imported to Ghana immediately become waste due to poor quality

The Kantamanto market in Ghana processes 15 million garments a week, many from Western donations, of which 40% are discarded

Textiles make up 7.7% of municipal solid waste in US landfills

Most "recycled" clothing is actually "downcycled" into lower value products like insulation, not new clothes

Biodegradable natural fibers like wool cannot decompose properly in anaerobic landfill conditions and release methane

Only 12% of the material used for clothing globally ends up being recycled in any form

5% of donations to thrift stores are eventually discarded as trash by the store itself due to mildew or damage

Over 700,000 tons of used clothing are exported from the US annually, effectively offshore waste management

The EU has mandated separate collection of textile waste by 2025 to curb landfilling

Chemical recycling of polyester (depolymerization) accounts for less than 0.1% of global textile recycling

150 billion garments are delivered out of factories annually, but nearly 30% are never sold and often destroyed/landfilled

It costs New York City $63 million per year to dispose of textile waste in landfills

Landfills in Chile's Atacama desert contain an estimated 39,000 tons of discarded unsold clothing

Mixed-fiber textiles (like cotton-poly blends) are currently chemically impossible to recycle at commercial scale

The average American throws away approximately 81.5 pounds of clothes every year

Global clothing production has doubled in the past 15 years while clothing utilization has decreased by 36%

The fashion industry produces 100 billion garments annually for a population of 8 billion people

Between 2000 and 2015, clothing sales doubled from 50 million tons to more than 100 million tons annually

The volume of textile waste generated in the United States rose from 12.6 million tons in 2010 to 17 million tons in 2018

China produces heavily, yet receives relatively few imports of used clothing compared to other nations

For every 1 kilogram of cloth produced, 0.6 kilograms of oil equivalent is consumed in distinct energy manufacturing

In the UK, an estimated £140 million worth of clothing goes to landfill each year

The sheer volume of fashion waste is projected to increase by 60% between 2015 and 2030

Pre-consumer waste (production scraps) accounts for 15% of all fabric used in garment manufacturing

NYC residents throw away 200,000 tons of clothing and textiles annually

The average European discards 11kg of textiles every year

Global production of polyester fibres increased from 5.27 million tonnes in 1980 to 53.7 million tonnes in 2017

92 million tons of textile waste is created annually globally

Canada produces approximately 1 billion pounds of textile waste each year

In Hong Kong, 343 tonnes of textile waste are dumped into landfills every day

Fast fashion brands release up to 52 micro-seasons per year, driving volume

Australia is the second highest consumer of textiles per person in the world after the US

The amount of clothing in the EU household consumption has increased by 40% in just a few decades

60% of all clothing produced is made from synthetics like polyester, driving fossil fuel extraction volume