Where Are All Your Used Clothes End Up

A market in Nyanza, Rwanda where they are sorting through and distributing clothes from the Western World. 

After you send your clothes to the Salvation Army or Goodwill, do you think what happens to your clothes afterwards?  Generally, we think that they are given to underprivileged children in our community, or sold at a local dime store for pennies on the dollar.  Some of our clothes do end up there, but a lot of it ends up here in developing countries.  In fact the Western World, particularly America, clothes the rest of the world with our used clothing. 

Huge shipments of clothes come off trucks and barges to ports in developing countries.  The clothes are then sorted and resold at markets all over country.  Every type of clothing that you have sent to Goodwill is resold here.  For example, in Nyanza there was a man who walked around town year round in a Santa Claus hat on his head.  Remember that shirt you gave to Goodwill that said “Remember My Name You’ll Be Screaming it Later”, well now there is a 12 year old girl wearing it in a village.  Somewhere in Africa right now a child is wearing a shirt that says “Santa Clause is not real.”  In fact, my housekeeper is a really strong 20 year old man that wears an orange and white “DuMont Cheerleading” jacket that has the name “Heather” embroidered on the front.  The people that wear these clothes have no clue what they mean, nor do they seem to care. 

Next time you give away your clothes, think about who will be wearing it next.  It could be an underprivileged family in your community, or it could be a child in India that walks around their village wearing it all week.