Personals

Earthly benefits
By donating a shirt, you remove it from going straight to what is known as the “solid waste stream.” This is the universal dumping ground for items we don’t recycle. Our solid waste usually winds up in one of two places. It gets buried in a landfill, which can contaminate soil and groundwater, consume valuable land, and emit some horrific odors.
Alternatively, your old clothes are torched in a huge incinerator that gives off microscopic particles that we breathe, and spews out clouds of greenhouse gases that heat and clog the atmosphere.

“Reincarnating” Your Clothing onTriple Play
Neither option is good for us or our planet. By recycling, two good things happen. We eliminate the need to produce a new item, and we remove an item from going to the solid waste stream. Win # 1 is thus all about protecting the environment and reducing the wear and tear on Mother Earth.

Clothes = jobs = income
Planet Aid, like all other clothes collection charities, sells the used clothing it collects. That is simply how it’s done. Moreover, only a fraction, about 20 percent, of all donated clothing in the U.S. is actually sold in thrift stores. The rest is sold to wholesale recyclers. The recyclers either grade and sort the clothes first, or ship them “as is” overseas. Along the way, lower grade clothes are made into other materials at processing plants that employ thousands around the world. The best garments may wind up in high-end boutiques or vintage shops. Used clothing shipments are routed all over the globe, but mainly to lesser-developed countries.
Humana HPPI

Protection of forests
Protection of forests is a huge challenge in Zimbabwe’s rural areas where the survival of the basically agro-based livelihood is highly linked to the environment with trees being central to the rural life. Firewood for cooking, timber for house construction, clearance of new fields on arable land and the curing of tobacco form the major threats associated with tree conservation in Shamva District.

Used clothes – the engine behind humanitarian aid
For non-profit organizations, the collection and sales of clothes is equally beneficial. Recycling provides needed cash to fund humanitarian projects. Planet Aid is among the nation’s largest charitable clothing recyclers. In 2010, Planet Aid alone collected nearly 100 million pounds of unwanted clothing – the equivalent weight of 254 Boeing jumbo jets. Since 1997, this and other funding has allowed Planet Aid to provide $70 million in direct or in-kind support to programs addressing health, education, job training, disease-prevention, farming, and child aid on three continents.

Activating a powerful synergy
And to think it all starts with a simple donation of a kid’s shirt or a pair of too tight designer jeans. It is this small act repeated by many across the nation that sets in motion a synergistic ripple effect, creating multiple benefits for people and the planet.

Planet Aid UK
Planet Aid UK donated £10,000 pounds to the action, which covered the establishment of the tree nursery, procurement of the plastic sachets, seedlings, logistics and other costs associated with the tree planting. Humana People to People extends its gratitude to the people of the United Kingdom for their contributions to a better environment, in England where second hand clothes are donated and in Zimbabwe where the 25,000 trees were planted.
Humana ADPP

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Development That Puts Children First - Child Aid
At the same time in these and other countries, Child Aid projects have been building preschools, offering adult literacy and maternal health classes, organizing youth clubs, planting fruit trees, and building playgrounds.

U.S. buried under mounting clothes pile
With each American disposing an average of 67 pounds of textiles a year, recycling is the best solution to the mounting pile of unwanted clothing. Not only does recycling protect our environment, it serves to provide usable clothes to the millions who may never own a new garment in their lifetime. Used clothes and shoes also serve as a global source of jobs and income for one-person shops, small businesses, and international firms that employ many more.

tree planting action
As a response to deforestation, Humana People to People planted 25,000 eucalyptus and moringa trees in more than 100 villages in Zimbabwe between Christmas and the New Year 2011.
The idea of the tree planting action was to build awareness in the local communities of Shamva district on environmental conservation, global warming and encourage people to think globally and act locally. Humana People to People used the festive season to plant trees with the local community in their villages.

Hungry for Used Clothes
After collection, clothes may be sold to a grading company to be sorted by material, type, and quality, ranging from “cream of the crop” garments for a high-end vintage shop, to “low-grade” T-shirts that are shredded and remade into polishing cloths. In between are multiple categories –—“tropical mix” wearables for warm climates, or items like belts and caps. Only better items or “shop quality” garments are hung in one of 12,000 thrift stores across the U.S.
Amazingly only 20 percent of all donated clothes are sold in thrift stores or secondhand shops. The bulk of all donations are eventually exported to overseas markets where demand is high. Twenty percent may be remanufactured into industrial wiping cloths, another 25 percent may be converted back to raw fiber for reuse as insulation or paper products. In the U.S. alone, nearly 3,000 recyclers handle the surplus of textile goods.
Humana DAPP