Nonprofits look for new clothing uses

TRAVERSE CITY -- The life of secondhand clothing doesn't end when it can't be sold or given away, too soiled or torn for customer use.

Much of it is collected and brought to the Traverse City Goodwill store, where it is refurbished and sold to textile brokers.

Some area nonprofits, conscious of their responsibility to help people in need and wanting to avoid high costs for trash services, look for creative ways to dispose of damaged clothing and other unsuitable merchandise.

Much of what is donated makes it to the sales floor, managers at a few local organizations said. But some things simply can't go out: damp, mildewy clothing, tattered furniture and broken dishware, to name a few.

In those cases, nearly every option is considered before the rejected goods become garbage.

"We don't want to throw them away," said Carol Rose, manager of the Women's Resource Center Thrift Shop in Traverse City. "That's just the absolute. You don't want that stuff to end up in landfills."

Soiled linens become bedding for animals at the Cherryland Humane Society -- "the dogs don't seem to mind," Rose said -- and local church groups take clothing to other countries on mission trips.

She said she wants to find cost-effective recycling options for old items, since the organization does not receive discounts on municipal services and trash fees can dip into the hundreds of dollars.

Goodwill Industries of Northern Michigan operates the thrift store on South Airport Road and regularly replaces items that don't sell with fresh ones.

Much of what is sent to the floor is of "like-new" quality, a practice that discards ripped or stained items and those with missing buttons or broken zippers, retail director Robert Randall said.

A jacket, for instance, of name-brand quality without a button might go to the sales floor in cold months, he said. But an average jacket donated in July likely would go to the baler.

Most unusable clothing ends up there, compressed and bound and sold as textiles. The money recouped is funneled back into the organization, Randall said.

"The quality wouldn't be high enough for it to make sales," he said, adding that some items are pitched, but typically only if covered in mildew or mold.

Clothing from other nonprofits, including the Women's Resource Center and the Father Fred Foundation, is accepted for this purpose.

Volunteers at the latter organization are instructed to hang clothing for clients based on whether they could wear it, said David Abeel, the foundation's development director.

In some cases, particularly with children's snowsuits, patches of dirt can be cleaned with the new laundry facility installed with Father Fred's recent building renovation. But no one is able to sew or repair broken clothing.

"Because the volume of stuff that's coming in is so great, we don't feel compelled to resuscitate what's wounded," Abeel said. "We've only got so many racks and so much square footage on your floor to display, so if we've got a good display of good stuff, that's what we're going to go with."

Photos

Discarded clothing makes a colorful display after it is compacted into bales. Record-Eagle

Steven Matthews, an employee of Goodwill Industries of Northern Michigan, fills a compactor that bales torn, soiled or otherwise damaged clothing that can't go out to the sales floor. Goodwill collects much of it and bales it together to sell as textiles. Record-Eagle