America’s second-hand clothing glut is causing a serious waste problem

The Goodwill’s Oakland headquarters on International Boulevard is a clothing reseller’s dream and a garbage system nightmare. The average American gets rid of 81 pounds of clothes a year, and this single Goodwill’s resellers can only make a small dent in the mountains of discarded clothes that are dropped off there. A lot of the clothes won’t be sold, and will instead get sent abroad to salvage resellers in Eastern Europe and both coasts of Africa. Ultimately, some will be landfilled. This might come as a surprise to many donors, who assume that their cast-off items will be put to good use and stay out of the landfill.