"The stores in Guatemala - I think that most people would be really blown away that the stores look like The Bay. But that doesn't mean the quality suffers. and Sweden, and an "upcycling" plant in India that turns old materials into new apparel to be resold.Įven in countries that make new clothing, consumers mostly purchase second-hand clothing, Bethell said. He's helped turn Bank & Vogue into a global business which now employs 300 people, including 50 at the head office in Ottawa, with boutique thrift shops called Beyond Retro in the U.K. (Paul Jay/CBC)īethell's company aims to find a solution to what he calls "the crisis of stuff."īethell wears his philosophy on his sleeve, sporting a second-hand vest, scarf and white dress shirt redone with a denim collar. Now his company exports used clothing to 27 countries around the world. Steven Bethell got his start working with the Salvation Army to find a home for donated clothes they couldn't sell. Some use a for-profit broker to find a home for all those unwanted donations. This means about 80 to 90 per cent of donated clothing isn't being resold in Canada. And some clothing donation bins skip thrift shops altogether. So about three-quarters of the clothing sent to thrift shops fails to find a second home. Value Village then sorts the clothes, and - like the charities that do it themselves - only sells about a quarter of it, said the company's VP of Recycling and Reuse, Tony Shumpert.
That fee is negotiated on a case-by-case basis, and is not publicly available. Value Village agrees to take the contents of the charities' bins, sight unseen, and pay them a flat fee based on the weight of the load. Kate Bahen, Charity Intelligence Canada managing director I don't think we should be exporting our garbage to developing countries, and I would put donated clothing in pretty much the same bucket. The Canadian Diabetes Association and Big Brothers/Big Sisters, for example, contract the sorting and selling of the clothes to for-profit enterprises such as Value Village. Other charities may operate their own donation boxes, but they don't always sell the clothes themselves. Vincent De Paul, the Salvation Army and Goodwill collect their own donated goods and sell them at their own thrift shops, but only about half of what they collect makes it onto the shelves and racks, and only half of that will actually sell.Īt the Salvation Army, clothes have four weeks to sell before they're replaced by the next wave of donations, according to Tonny Colyn, the national donations manager in Canada for the charitable organization. (Dennis Van Staalduinen) Most donations don't sellĬharities including the Society of St. Not all bin operators are transparent about where the donated clothing goes. in Ottawa was removed because it violated bylaws. This clothing donation bin at Parkdale Avenue and Wellington Street W. "It sort of goes into a murky world, and it's difficult to follow up what happens to the clothing - how is the clothing actually helping people, how is it charitable?" Bahen said. "It's very difficult to see what's going on," said Kate Bahen, the managing director of Charity Intelligence Canada, an organization that aims to help donors make informed decisions. You can be part of the conversation by joining our Facebook group.įor anyone who doesn't want their old shirts, pants or dresses to end up in a landfill, clothing donation bins sound like a win-win-win solution: the donor gets to declutter, the charity operating the bin gets to resell the clothing to fund good deeds, and a shopper on a budget gets to buy affordable clothes.īut in reality, the path your worn-out jeans take isn't so straight, and doesn't always benefit the people you may think. We're exploring why our communities are at a turning point and exploring ways to recycle better.
#Best place to donate clothes sa series
Reduce, Reuse and Rethink is a CBC News series about recycling.
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