End of Life Clothing Recycling Locations

Apr 25, 2025

Clothing and textile recycling opportunities aren’t widespread yet, but the technology and infrastructure needed to recycle our clothing are evolving quickly, and you can help! For a limited time, SWACO will work with several municipalities and select Goodwill locations to accept end-of-life clothing. For this pilot, end-of-life clothing is categorized as stained, ripped, or worn-out clothing that doesn’t meet donation standards. These items cannot realistically be sold or worn again.  If your clothing is in good condition, please consider donation before dropping off clothes through this recycling program.

During this pilot, end-of-life clothing will be recycled domestically with Leigh Fibers into various insulation products such as punching bags, bedding, home furnishings, padding in caskets, and more. The pilot’s goal is to remove end-of-life clothing from second-hand, global markets in places like Kenya, Ghana, and Pakistan, where it is likely to be landfilled or incinerated, which is not a desired outcome by anyone.  Together, we can responsibly address end-of-life clothing by supporting a young but growing US market where it can be recycled into usable products.

What happens at the end of the pilot? We hope to demonstrate that we can collect enough end-of-life clothing in the right categories to design an ongoing, cost-effective collection program.  We consider this a true “field experiment,” and we will learn a lot. If you’re reading this, we hope that you’ll be interested enough to participate!

Click here to find a recycling participating drop-off location near you. New locations will be added throughout the spring and summer, so check back for more drop-off sites! Clothing items such as denim, polyester, fleece jackets, sweatshirts, t-shirts, towels, socks, and blankets will be accepted.

For those who wish to learn more about how to keep clothing in circulation for longer and reduce clothing waste:

Reduce

• Purchase less clothing in general.
• Purchase pre-owned clothing.

• For clothes you may only wear once, such as graduation gowns or formal attire look for opportunities to rent instead of purchasing.  Nuuly offers rental options for prom dresses.

• Say no to event t-shirts and ask organizations who still produce them to reconsider this practice.

Reuse

• Clothing Swap Host or support a clothing swap.  Eventbrite is a great resource to learn about upcoming clothing swaps in your area.

• Clothing Donation

1. • Return items such as spirit wear to your local PTO and ask them to offer it back to kids in the school system.

• • Donate your clothing to an organization serving the local community.  Contact your local school, place of worship and ask them for information about nearby organizations that need specific items.

• • Donate good condition clothing to charitable organizations such as Goodwill, Ohio Thrift, and Volunteers of America. The money these organizations earn through resale funds many important behavioral and mental health programs for Americans. Locate your nearest drop-off site here.

• • Sell or donate your clothing through a local consignment store or companies such as ThredUp.

Repair

• Consider repairing clothes with iron-on patches or mending. Some brands like Patagonia offer repair options with DIY videos or mail-in programs.

• Your local dry cleaner may have a sewist on site who can handle most mending work, or you can check out companies like OldFlameMending who offer mail in mending services and classes.

Downcycle – Brands

• Buy from brands that offer return programs like Nike, Eileen Fisher, H&M, and The North Face.

Downcycle – by Category

• Shoes – Consider Soles4souls which is partnering with Zappos to keep shoes out of landfills.  You can ship for free.  Learn more about Soles4souls.

• Underwear – Send your used items to Subset (formerly Knickeys).  You can ship for free. They will recycle it and also will send you a coupon for purchases on their site.

• Socks – Send your socks to Smartwool who has sponsored the Second Cut Project.  You can ship for free and they will recycle.
• Denim – can also be downcycled through BlueJeansGoGreen. You can print a free shipping label and mail your denim or locate a retailer on their website.
• Miscellaneous – Trashie Take Back Bag – NYC-based Trashie charges $20 for your textile waste (fabric cuttings and garments that are torn or worn out, at their end of life).