On average, each of us buys 60 new items of clothing per year - and sorts out old, but often still well-preserved shirts, trousers and the like. But what to do with the discarded items? Where can you hand in old clothes and what should you bear in mind? We provide an overview of where you can (sensibly) donate clothes.
You can find them in abundance in almost every city: large containers that you can use to easily hand in your old clothes can. What you should know: Only a small proportion of the clothes collected in them end up directly with those in need. In most cases, your donated old clothes will either be sold to second-hand shops in Germany and Europe - or to Africa. Anything that is not for sale is made into cleaning rags or burned and used to generate heat.
The fact that parts of your old clothing donations end up in Africa and are sold there still leads to heated discussions today: On the one hand, this creates jobs that revolve around sorting and selling these textiles, and resources are conserved - on the other hand, competition destroys textile production on site, developing countries remain permanently dependent on us and our donations.
Whether you want to donate your clothes via container, despite or because of the arguments listed above, is a very individual decision. To ensure that the actual purpose, namely doing good, is guaranteed in any case, you should make sure that the containers are operated by providers who generate their income through sales
donate or use the old clothes for charitable purposes. The consumer advice center recommends only using containers that have a German address and landline number. There are also seals (FairWertung, DZI donation seal, BVSE quality seal) that indicate the responsible and charitable purpose of the respective container display.
If you want to know exactly where your discarded shirts, jackets, etc. are going, you can hand in your used clothing to clothing stores, social department stores and other social institutions. In this way you avoid long transport routes in any case corresponding CO2 emissions.
There are such chambers and acceptance points in almost every city and municipality, for example from German Red Cross, Caritas or the church. In the wake of the major refugee crisis starting in 2015, many independent aid organizations developed and professionalized regionally. For example, look in social networks where you can donate used clothes. To make sure what the need is and what it is, it's best to call the organization beforehand. In the last few months in particular, some locations (and containers) were so full that an acceptance stop was imposed. In addition, the need often depends heavily on the time of year.
Even if you are of course doing good with your clothing donation (in the right place) and helping those in need with clothing - it's even better not to sort out so much clothing in the first place. And that also means buying less new clothing in the first place. Instead, become part of the slow fashion movement and buy selected, high-quality and sustainably produced items. If you take care of your clothes appropriately and wash them correctly - for example with the help of our laundry tips - you will enjoy the items for a long time before you can give away your really old clothes at some point.