I thought this was a great blog by Jeri’s Organizing & Decluttering News and I wanted to share it!
Do you ever wonder what becomes of the clothing those of us in the U.S. donate to charity? Pietra Rivoli explains it all in her book, The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy. I didn’t read this whole book, just the last three chapters — and it was a fascinating read.
You may have already known that much of the clothing donated to Goodwill or The Salvation Army winds up overseas, because there simply isn’t enough demand in the U.S. for the huge amount of clothing that gets donated. (And about 85 percent of the clothes we throw away goes into landfill, which is sad — since almost all of it can be reused.)
But much of what Rivoli explains was new to me, including this concept:
The global used clothing industry is … a fascinating study in the
market for “snowflakes,” as almost every item of clothing that enters the trade is unique. …The snowflake factor means that the most successful firms
in the industry are those with highly developed expertise in picking out special snowflakes, and with worldwide but personal relationships that allow them to match snowflakes with customers.Click here to read the rest of the blog…
Happy Organizing! Bridges
