Hand-me-downs good for the pocketbook and the planet

(Photo by Chotthanin Udomwariyawat/FreeRangeStock.com)

Thanks to the generosity of friends and family, having a baby six years ago didn't bring financial disaster to my husband and me. We got many necessities (and a few non-essentials) at the baby shower, and we have received tons of hand-me-downs my oldest niece had outgrown and a very generous collection of garage-sale finds from one of my best friends.

Within months of my daughter's birth, we, too, we're amassing a pile of out-grown clothes and things our daughter had outgrown. I had no idea what to do with them all. At first, we put them back, thinking maybe, just maybe, another baby might come along. When that didn't happen within the first couple of years, I started thinking about what to do.

Thankfully, my younger sister soon had a daughter of her own, and everything I had that was still usable found a new home.

I know passing along clothing, especially among people with growing children, is a common practice, but it wasn't until recently that I considered how beneficial this can be. Can you image the environmental impact if everyone bought all new items for every child they had? Just the effects of clothing alone would be startling.

According to a Huffington Post UK article called, “The Environmental Impact of Clothing,” crops used to make natural fibers like cotton require lots of chemical pesticides while producing non-natural clothing material made with petrochemicals releases greenhouse gases.

And then there's what becomes of the clothing we no longer want: As it is, some 10.5 million tons of clothing winds up in landfills every year, a July 2014 article in The Atlantic reports. Imagine how destructive clothing would be if everyone just tossed their unwanted blue jeans and T-shirts into the garbage.

I feel good when I can help out my younger sister by giving her clothing for her daughter or when I take it to a resale shop that's not as picky as some of the more upscale shops.

It's the clothing in not-so-great shape, though, that I'm left wondering how I should discard. I'm still trying to figure that one out.


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