Donating to charity is something that more and more people are doing here in the United States. As a matter of fact, more than 95% of all people will donate to charity at least once throughout the year. Donating to charity is a great way to spend any excess money that you might have accumulated – and it’s most certainly a great way to give back to the world and to your local community, helping out everything from our planet to those who are in need right next door – and sometimes even both at one go. For many people, giving back to charity is the least they can do, but taking such a small step is something that might end up having a considerable impact at the end of the day.
Unfortunately, giving to charity in this way, through a monetary donation, is not necessarily something that everyone is going to be able to do. After all, a great many of us are very much living paycheck to paycheck – or close to it. For many people, having any spare money for a charitable organization is not something that they can do. Fortunately, this does not mean that there is no way to give back at all in any way whatsoever. Donating used clothing and textiles is a great way to give back to your community and to the world at large.
For one thing, there are many charities out there that will be more than accepting of such donations. Military charities are one of them, as military charities are likely to not just provide support to those who are actually in the military, but military charities often provide support for the families of the military personnel in question as well. For many people, donating to military charities is just one great way to support those who have served our country – and who might be struggling after having done so, something that is most certainly all too common in today’s day and age.
In addition to military charities, charitable donations in the form of used clothing and textiles can be made to other charitable organizations as well. The American Red Cross, for instance, presents just one example. After all, the American Red Cross provides round the clock services all throughout the year, giving those who are in need not just clothing but shelter, blankets, food, and even blood should it become necessary. Therefore, military charities and other such charitable organizations all throughout the country are likely to be great places to make a charitable clothing drop off.
And the average person is likely to have more than enough clothing and textiles to donate to these military charities and other such charity organizations. For instance, the average person of today now has up to double the clothing than someone living even just 20 years ago would have had. And while the average woman of nearly 100 years ago (in the year of 1930, to be just a bit more exact) would have had only around nine total outfits, the average woman of today will have as many as 30 different outfits. Therefore, it is clear to see that most of us will have an excess of clothing. And when it comes to textile waste, the average person living in the United States will contribute up to 82 pounds of it over the course of just one year.
Unfortunately, the waste that we produce in this realm is something that is hugely detrimental, with as many as ten and a half million tons of textile waste winding up in landfills here in the United States alone – and all throughout the course of just one year. Though only around 15% of our clothing is being given as charity donations, we can change this. In doing so, in making more veterans clothing donations to military charities and the like, we can help to save our planet as we help those in need in our communities and in the world as aw hole as well.