How to: Recycle orphaned socks and smelly shoes
I recently found myself dejectedly staring down a small mountain of clothes. Earlier that day, I woke up determined to clean out my closet. I diligently went through each item to decide if it sparked joy, and was filled with a deep sense of accomplishment as I whittled down my wardrobe. And then I turned around and was faced with the mound of rejects.
After sorting through the pile again, I had a slightly smaller collection of orphaned socks, worn-out unmentionables, leaky rain boots, and other items that would be unlikely to find a new home. I know that throwing fabric away means it will likely sit in a landfill for hundreds of years (in 2018 over 11 million tons of textiles were tossed into the landfill in the United States), so I started looking for other options instead of just dumping them off at the nearest thrift store and hoping for the best. Unfortunately, since many of these items can’t be resold, thrift stores aren’t always equipped to handle them.
If you find yourself in a similar situation, here are a few options for how to proceed.
Give them a new job
Make rags for cleaning up around the house by cutting up old clothes, especially t-shirts and sweaters. This is a great way to get some extra mileage out of that old band t-shirt you are finally ready to let go of (sort of).
Ship them off to a new life
Socks, old undies, and those worn-out running shoes are unlikely to end up in my rag bin. So what to do with these? Great news: there are recycling programs that turn those lonesome socks and gross old shoes into things like children’s playgrounds, insulation, and more.
Undies and socks:
Knickey takes old underwear, socks, and tights and turns them into things like insulation and stuffing for furniture. Super cool! They’ll take men’s, women’s, and children’s items and turn them into something new. And you can even earn credits for a new pair of underwear (women only for now, sorry boys).
Shoes: There are a number of options to take care of your old shoes. Here are some worth considering:
Running shoes have a notoriously short shelf life and are hard to recycle because of the various components in the shoes themselves. Nike and Asics have programs where you can return any athletic shoe and they’ll recycle them. Asics even accepts clothing as well as shoes!
Rain boots and other shoes (and jeans!): A leaky pair of rain boots is a sad discovery. The “Zappos for Good” program accepts all shoes including rain boots and turns them into things like children’s playgrounds. They also accept jeans! You can print a shipping label online and ship them for free.
General fabric: For any clothes that are just not going to cut it in the donation box and that aren’t fit to become rags, Terracycle will take any type of fabric purchase a Zero Waste Box from Terracycle
Turn them into cash
For those items that aren’t totally worn out, consider selling your clothes on websites like Poshmark or ThredUp. You can earn a bit of money and save those clothes from an eternity at the bottom of the landfill. And of course, with gently used clothes you can always take them to a donation center or thrift store.
The list goes on and on
There are definitely many, many other ways to recycle or reuse your donation-unfriendly articles of clothing - this is by no means an exhaustive list and if you have additional resources, please share!
Hopefully, this saves you time on research and inspires you to think twice before chucking your old pair of mismatched socks or trail weary running shoes into the trash bin.
