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For-Profit Textile Recycling

January 24, 2023November 7, 2024

Chicago Textile Recycling exists under the parent company of Wipeco, Inc., a large supplier of wiping rags primarily to the Midwest. We have shared before some of the history of our company. Wipeco has changed over the years from a diaper service in the 1960’s to what we are today, providing wiping rags and other janitorial supplies to the greater Chicagoland and Midwest areas. Both Wipeco, Inc and CTR are known as for-profit companies, in contrast to non-profit. What does this mean for us, and what does it mean for you as you choose our bins and partner resale stores to recycle your old textiles?

For-Profit vs Non-Profit

First off, what exactly is a ‘for-profit’ business? “While for-profit organizations may have a variety of goals, their primary mission is to generate profit and develop effective products and services that are valuable to consumers.” (Here) For Wipeco, Inc, this looks like offering the best janitorial and sanitation products as well as strong and absorbent wiping rags, either disposable, new cloth or recycled from our textile recycling donations. For CTR, this looks like developing effective ways to collect used textiles in the Chicagoland area for further use both locally and abroad.

How does a for-profit differ from a non-profit? “A nonprofit, by contrast, doesn’t prioritize profits and is instead dedicated to promoting a social cause or advocating for a particular standpoint.” (Here) Non-profits can (and often should) be held in high esteem because of their dedication to community needs and serving those communities. However, for-profit organizations can also offer many benefits to local communities and elsewhere.

Local Business

For-profit textile recyclers, such as Chicago Textile Recycling, are small local businesses. Because for-profit businesses generate profit and pay employees (in contrast to relying on volunteers), they help the local economy through providing jobs as well as providing local services to its community. For us, this looks like providing a local place to drop off textiles and offering destruction services for unusable uniforms from other local businesses and organizations. It also offers a specific service for the greater Chicago area and a point of pride for us to be a part of Chicago commerce and for Chicago to have a great recycling service being offered for its residents.

Benefits Global Economy

In addition to benefiting the local economy, for-profit textile recyclers benefit the global economy, as goods are exchanged and businesses are established in developing countries. Here at Chicago Textile Recycling, we have numerous relationships with other businesses both locally and globally. We send many of our recycled textiles overseas to benefit those in other areas of the world and their economies. For more info on the benefits to those receiving recycled textiles overseas, see our blog where we describe employment opportunities and affordable clothing options to those we work with. We also work with graders that can be local or international, increasing our impact on the global economy. In our blog on the process of where recycled textiles go, we talk about our work with graders during the recycling process.

Effective Resource

Lastly, for-profit textile recyclers such as CTR are effective resources for processing donated items. Whereas many people believe that their donations to a charity or non-profit go directly to those in need, this is often not the case. Many charities receive far more donations than they can sell or use, and thus need to find volunteers to sort and process these donations. This process can detract from their mission of serving those in need.

In contrast, many for-profit companies can and do partner with nonprofits to assist them in their mission. They do this by helping them earn funds for their donations collected without necessarily needing to provide labor to sort and process. For-profit companies have the freedom to do many things that nonprofits simply don’t have resources and time to do and thus can offer different benefits to the community.

Our Hope

Our hope in writing this blog is for more clarity for our readers around the differences between nonprofit and for-profit and how they both offer beneficial, yet different options for consumers and communities. We are thankful for the ways we have been able to serve the Chicagoland area over the decades and hope for many more years of providing a much needed resource for textile recycling.

Fast Fashion

Slow Fashion & Rags

September 14, 2022November 7, 2024

In our post a few months ago, we introduced the term “slow fashion,” discussing what it means, how it’s different from fast fashion and why it is important to choose slow fashion when making decisions on what clothing to purchase. In this blog we hope to discuss another large reason slow fashion is so important, which is that the slow fashion movement is paramount for the rag and recycling industries directly.

Our parent company, Wipeco, Inc. is a supply company that focuses on providing quality wiping rags to those in the industrial, manufacturing and janitorial industries. And quality is of utmost importance when creating rags from pre-consumer waste and post-consumer used textiles. For the history of wiping rags and the role they have played across the years, check out our blog post, “Wipers”.

Quality Matters

Why is quality so important when it comes to creating wiping rags? Clothing that is poorly made doesn’t make good rags.

“The days of recycled 100 percent cotton wiping rags are pretty much over, and so are the days when wiping rag manufacturers could rely on industry specifications. The problem is that clothes and textiles simply aren’t as well made as they used to be. A shirt that falls apart after a few washes can’t be transformed into a rag suitable for wiping down a freshly washed car or a restaurant table. Cheap fast fashion isn’t just hurting thrift shops; it’s hastening a garment’s trip to the landfill or garbage incinerator.” (“Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale”, Minter, p 162)

This is why slow fashion is so important for the wiping rag industry. When consumers choose to care about the quality of their clothing and how it is made and the people who make it, everyone wins. The consumer wins by having a quality item that will last wash after wash and one that they can feel good about buying. The secondhand store wins when the consumer no longer needs that item as it will be in good condition to be resold or sent to a grader. The wiping rag supplier wins by having quality material to sell to industries in need of rags. Because the clothes last longer there is greater demand for second-hand wear in the export market AND it is less labor intensive to sort, as there is a greater percentage of rewearable or reusable items.

Fabric Matters – Polyester vs Cotton

When it comes to wiping rags, the type of fabric matters. Depending on what the rag is needed for, different fabrics will absorb and clean in different ways. Cotton is stronger and more absorbent than polyester, so allows for greater reuse. “When assessing if an old garment will make a useful rag, [Nicole Malalieu, a fashion lecturer at Australian College of the Arts] says “to steer clear of anything that’s polyester or synthetic because it just doesn’t absorb as well”. (Found Here)

Polyester and polyester blends have multifaceted challenges in terms of recycling and reuse of fabric. Polyester and even polyester blended fabrics prove ineffective for use in the wiping rag industry, causing their end of life as a textile to come much sooner than other naturally made fabrics such as cotton. The problems with polyester continue as laundering this fabric releases microplastics into the water and it does not naturally biodegrade in landfills as other textiles would – 100% cotton for example.

Some might ask, “But what about its ability to be recycled again and again into new garments?” Though it may seem a greener alternative due to this possibility, there is no current strategy for efficient separation of blended fabrics such as polyester. In contrast, 100% cotton has multiple reuse options as the absorbent material makes it highly desirable for breathability and absorption, etc.

Slow Matters

From caring for the quality of life of textile workers to caring for the environment and the life of a textile, slow fashion is a win-win for everyone.

The textile worker wins by being given a safe place to work and liveable wages.
The environment wins by having less of its resources used or polluted.
The consumer wins by having a unique, quality piece of clothing to wear that will last longer than fast fashion pieces.
The resale store wins by having quality clothing to resell for better prices.
The wiping rag supplier wins by having better quality wiping rags to supply to industries they serve.
And the environment wins yet again by having biodegradable textiles in landfills at their end of life versus ones that don’t break down.

It is easy to see that slow fashion is the best choice. As you look to purchase new clothing in the future, please consider long term benefits and choose slow fashion retailers that help all of us benefit.

Our Company

Wipers

November 20, 2020November 13, 2024

As many of our readers know, Chicago Textile Recycling operates under its parent company of Wipeco, Inc. A supplier of wiping rags for Chicagoland and the greater Midwest, Wipeco plays a vital role in textile recycling.

“Few consumers, anywhere, have heard of the wiping rag industry. But it bails out everyone. Approximately 30 percent of the textiles recovered for recycling in the United States are converted to wiping rags, according to Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles: the Association of Wiping Materials, Used Clothing, and Fiber Industries (SMART), a U.S.-based trade association. And that’s probably an undercount. The 45 percent of recycled textiles that are reused as apparel eventually wear out, too. When they do, they are also bound for the wiping rag companies.” (“Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale”, Minter, p 158)

A Short History

Previously, we shared a very short history of the rag and bone man from the early to mid nineteenth century here. There is no way to truly know when people began cutting old clothes into cleaning rags, but I imagine it began much earlier.

“For most of human history, rag making has been an act of household thrift so common that few consumers think of it as recycling, sustainable, or green. What transformed this act of household thrift into an industrial process were the factories and machines that created the industrial revolution. Maintaining and repairing those machines required rags to apply or wipe up grease and oil. In industrializing England, the most abundant source of those rags was the growing surplus of used, unwanted textiles made by those very machines. An industry emerged to collect and deliver them to the rag makers, and by the late nineteenth century, British rag makers were as industrialized as the textile mills, with buying networks as complex as those used to distribute clothing to the growing retail industry. Rag making soon went global: by 1929, the United States was the leading rag-making nation, home to at least twenty-six wiping rag companies with industrial laundries that ensured the cleanest rags possible. Thousands of people were employed in rag-cutting factories.” (p 159)

Wipeco began in 1960 when Wipeco founder Courtney Shanken’s cloth diaper service business was evaporating with the growing popularity of disposable diapers. He began receiving numerous calls from manufacturers asking to purchase the used clean cloth diapers as rags. From then, it has grown into the business it is today. Though many rag-cutting and supply companies have moved overseas, a number still remain in the United States run by committed and passionate employers who aim to supply quality wiping rags to businesses such as those listed in the quote above.

Why Rags?

What exactly is the need for rags? Are they really necessary for businesses? Do they truly keep a significant number of textiles out of landfills?

“Nobody counts the number of wiping rags manufactured in the United States and elsewhere every year. But anyone who knows the industry acknowledges that the numbers are in the many billions, and growing. The oil and gas industry, with its network of pipes and valves, requires hundreds of millions of rags per year to wipe leaks, lubricants, and hands. Hotels, bars, and restaurants need billions of rags to wipe everything from glasses to tabletops to railings. Auto manufacturers need rags to wipe down cars as they come off the assembly line; repair garages need rags to clean off dipsticks after oil changes; car washes need them to apply wax. Painters need them to wipe brushes, spills and drips. And the healthcare industry demands endless numbers of rags to keep hospitals and clinics clean and sanitary.” (Minter, p 158)

As Minter shares, rags are vital to many industries in our country. With billions used, billions are kept out of landfills. With billions kept out of landfills, those who recycle textiles can know they are making a difference with their donations supplying necessary rags to keep businesses clean and healthy and keeping unnecessary items out of landfills, further harming our planet.

Wipers Today

With the advent of the pandemic this year, even greater is the need for wiping rags in various industries. Wiping rags used in conjunction with disinfectants and cleaners are essential in keeping populations safe and healthy during this harrowing time. However, rags are not what they were even fifty years ago.

“The days of recycled 100 percent cotton wiping rags are pretty much over, and so are the days when wiping rag manufacturers could rely on industry specifications. The problem is that clothes and textiles simply aren’t as well made as they used to be. A shirt that falls apart after a few washes can’t be transformed into a rag suitable for wiping down a freshly washed car or a restaurant table. Cheap fast fashion isn’t just hurting thrift shops; it’s hastening a garment’s trip to the landfill or garbage incinerator.” (Minter, p 162)

As quality decreases with textile production, many suppliers have had to turn to disposable paper wipers and even create their own wiping rags, seeing the product through from cotton fields to rag, certifying a quality product with the highest standards for wipers. The wiping rag trade is one that is both complicated and creative, and remains indispensable to many industries in our country.

Textile Recycling

Our hope at Chicago Textile Recycling is that with this short education around the importance of wiping rags and our ongoing goal of spreading awareness around textile recycling in general will further spur on your desire to recycle textiles and educate those in your sphere of influence. By recycling textiles, you are furthering the production of wiping rags to supply necessary businesses such as hospitals, schools and hotels to keep patients, students, and patrons healthy during this season of sickness. You are helping your community in supplying thrift and resale stores with products to sell to aid their missions of reaching at-risk and poor populations. You are providing fiber content for insulation in numerous homes, cars, and other products. And you are keeping textiles out of landfills and furthering the care of our planet.

Recycling Process

Recycled Textiles: Where Do They Go? Part 2 –…

September 24, 2019December 19, 2024

Two weeks ago, CTR posted about what happens to your textiles when you donate to one of our bins. (READ ABOUT IT HERE) This week we are focusing on the journey your textiles take when donated to a resale store, such as Goodwill, Salvation Army or your local resale shop. What happens after you drive up and drop off your bags? How much is kept and resold in store, and what happens to the rest? Where do they wind up next? This post will tell you more about where recycled textiles go once they leave your home.

First Stop – Resale Store

Just like with donating at a bin, it starts with you, the recycler. Marie Kondo or the season of Spring or just the overwhelming clutter has finally inspired you to go through your house and clean out the closets and dressers, your linens and shoes. You bag all of it up, and put it in your car, and breathe a sigh of relief that you have purged the excess. Next up is a short drive to your nearest resale store where you can unload the stress of too much stuff and feel good about your textiles living another life in someone else’s closet and home. As you drive away, you may wonder where does it all go?

Workers at resale stores first divide items into clothes, toys, housewares, etc. The next group of workers then goes through each donated item and checks for stains, rips, and odors. Clothes that are wet or have mildew are tossed into the trash to head for the local landfill as they are unusable.Stained or torn items as well as those that are out of fashion are bundled for recycling. Items are then assessed by what the store would likely resell and prepared for the store floor. Elizabeth Cline, author of “The Conscious Closet: The Revolutionary Guide to Looking Good While Doing Good” states that “on average, most resale stores and thrift shops only sell 20 to 25% of the donations they receive, and the rest is sent onward to exporters or recyclers.” .

Sometimes items are even chosen for the sales floor but after a few weeks of not selling, are then taken off the floor and sent onward. Each store has their own timeline for turning inventory, but all of them try to have something new to offer for customers.

From here – the journey is the same as those items donated to a textile donation bin. We’ve outlined the process here, but you can read about it in full detail in our last blog post – “Recycled Textiles: Where Do They Go? Part 1 – Bins”.

Second Stop – Consolidating Warehouse

Next stop is a consolidating warehouse, such as the one we have at Chicago Textile Recycling. For more information, visit our website.

Third Stop – Sort and Grade

The textiles then move onto graders to be sorted for their final stop.

Fourth and Final Stop (Option 1) – Reuse

Whether the resale store deems it sellable or it is sent to other countries to resell, almost half of donated textiles are resold to enjoy a second life with someone else.

Fourth and Final Stop (Option 2) – Wiping Rags

Our parent company, Wipeco, Inc. uses recycled textiles to cut into wiping rags and resell to buyers.

Fourth and Final Stop (Option 3) – Reprocessing

Many textiles are broken down for insulation, etc.

Fourth and Final Stop (Option 4) – Landfill

A few textiles are at their end of life and have no other possible stops but a landfill.

Taking Care of our Earth

Finally, Chicago Textile Recycling often receives the question, “What should I do with my items that are not good enough to donate to a resale store?” In every case, it is best to donate it anyway, even if you are unsure. Resale store employees are trained to assess if an item should go to the sales floor or on to a recycler and most recyclers purchase those items that don’t make the cut. Although these items sell at a lower rate than pristine conditioned resalable items, many resale stores are non-profits who rely greatly on any additional funds they can generate for the causes they initiate. Rarely will they refuse a donation. If you are interested in finding a resale store near you that recycles, please CONTACT US and we’d be happy to point you to one of our partner stores in your area.

Elizabeth Cline quotes taken from this article

Recycling Process

Recycled Textiles: Where Do They Go? Part 1 –…

September 12, 2019December 19, 2024

Have you ever wondered what happens when you drop off bags of old clothes and textiles at your local textile recycling bin? What do textile recycling companies do with your clothes? What about stained and ripped clothes? Do they shred them all for rags or donate some to resale stores? Where do they wind up next? This post is all about the journey recycled textiles take once they leave your home.

If you find yourself donating to resale stores rather than bins, check out Part 2 of this series that discusses the journey your textiles take at resale stores.

First Stop – Textile Recycling Bin

You’ve cleaned out your closet and your dresser, checked your linen shelves for sheets and towels that are no longer needed, and looked in the bottom of your closet for shoes that no longer fit or fit your style. After you have collected what you can and gathered them into shopping bags, boxes, or garbage bags, you drop them off at the nearest textile recycling bin so someone else can enjoy them. The driver then swings by on his route and cleans out the bin. And then what?

Looking for your nearest donation bin? Contact us!

Second Stop – Consolidating Warehouse

The driver delivers the collected textiles back to our company, Chicago Textile Recycling, which is a consolidating warehouse. At CTR, we consolidate the collected textiles into 1,000 lb bales and prepare them for shipment to a grader, which can be domestic or abroad. Volume is key in recycling as there needs to be enough similar type items for reuse or recycling to be viable. Collecting the maximum volume of textiles prior to shipping helps to reduce our carbon footprint and the cost of freight.

Third Stop – Sort and Grade

The next stop for your recycled textiles is to ship them to graders. Graders are located in the U.S., Canada or even overseas. For Chicago Textile Recycling, which is a member of Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles (S.M.A.R.T.), the next steps are to “sort and grade the used clothing based on quality, condition, and type. Once sorted the used clothing and textiles are reused and recycled in one of the following manners.” (quoted from S.M.A.R.T. Press Kit)

Fourth and Final Stop (Option 1) – Reuse

If the clothing is still wearable, it makes the most sense and has the lowest carbon footprint for these items to remain as is and be reworn. Almost half of your donated textiles are sold in the U.S. to resale stores or are exported to other countries where quality secondhand clothing is in high demand. Elizabeth Cline, author of “The Conscious Closet: The Revolutionary Guide to Looking Good While Doing Good”, estimates that “the equivalent of 1.7 billion garments are exported out of the United States every year,” the majority of which will be sold as clothing. (quoted from the article below) Cline expounds, “the so-called developing world has become a bigger and bigger market for the clothes that we no longer want.” Due to this demand, Chicago Textile Recycling and other consolidators sells those items graded as wearable to buyers overseas and also domestically for reuse.

There are multiple benefits to exporting wearable clothing for reuse. Not only does this provide affordable, high-quality clothing to those in need, but S.M.A.R.T. also discusses the benefits of shipping secondhand clothing overseas, sharing that this industry “is lauded by many, including Oxfam, an international aid organization. Oxfam points out, it ‘supports the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of people in developing countries who work in trading, distributing, repairing, restyling, washing, etc.’ International trade is a critical component of the textile industry’s success. More than 60% of recovered textile waste is sent abroad to more than 100 countries, equating to more than 1.4 billion pounds of used clothing – creating hundreds of thousands of jobs worldwide.”

Fourth and Final Stop (Option 2) – Wiping Rags

Clothing that is not wearable, out of fashion or slightly stained or torn but made of absorbent materials can be cut into wiping rags. Nearly a third of recycled textiles are cut into wiping rags or polishing cloths then resold to janitorial, automotive, industrial, or manufacturing industries. Items such as t-shirts, sweatshirts, jeans and towels are very effective for making wiping rags.

This is especially pertinent to CTR because our parent company, Wipeco, Inc. does this very thing. We have “2 hands” in the recycling industry because of this. Wipeco, Inc is a distributor of wiping cloths, so we see first hand the benefits of recycled textiles going back into use in a multitude of settings.

Fourth and Final Stop (Option 3) – Reprocessing

For textiles that are not wearable but also non-absorbent, fiber recycling may be their final step. These recycled textiles are reprocessed and then repurposed for things such as:

Furniture stuffing
Carpet padding
Home insulation
Upholstery
Building materials
Automobile sound-proofing
Various other products

Each of these potential uses of repurposed textiles are handled by different industry members that specialize in that particular reprocessing and repurposing. This is not a one stop shop for the end of textile recycling, but involves many employees at many companies that care about the environment and textiles and reducing landfill waste.

Fourth and Final Stop (Option 4) – Landfill

Some textiles that are donated to bins come wet, moldy or contaminated with solvents and are thus deemed unusable and unfit for recycling. These items must be thrown away and end up in landfills. That is why it is so important to clean and thoroughly dry your textiles before donating them. It’s also important to donate in plastic bags so that if others donate things that are wet, moldy, or contaminated, those items will not leak into the rest of the bin.

However, everything does and will have an end of life at some point. Extremely worn items with weak or damaged fibers cannot be recycled. Also, as mentioned above, items that are moldy or contaminated cannot be recycled either. When you face the difficult task of throwing away a textile at its end of life, you can choose to make the transition easier by following the method Marie Kondo teaches in her book and now in her show…thank the item for the life it gave you, and let it go.

Textile Recycling and Our Planet

Finally, donating to a bin is an important step toward reducing waste in landfills and taking care of our planet. Even clothes you are unsure of donating due to wear and stains, it is best to donate regardless and allow the consolidating warehouses to make that call of the item’s usefulness in the recycling process. That beloved stained band t-shirt with a small hole in the front may one day be inside your neighbor’s new couch, or that new minivan you are wanting to buy. When in doubt, donate and help create a better future for all of us.

Elizabeth Cline quotes taken from this article

Numerous facts of the recycled textiles process and a few quotes were taken from the Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles press kit

For-Profit Textile Recycling

For-Profit vs Non-Profit

Local Business

Benefits Global Economy

Effective Resource

Our Hope

Slow Fashion & Rags

Quality Matters

Fabric Matters – Polyester vs Cotton

Slow Matters

Wipers

A Short History

Why Rags?

Wipers Today

Textile Recycling

Recycled Textiles: Where Do They Go? Part 2 –…

First Stop – Resale Store

From here – the journey is the same as those items donated to a textile donation bin. We’ve outlined the process here, but you can read about it in full detail in our last blog post – “Recycled Textiles: Where Do They Go? Part 1 – Bins”.

Second Stop – Consolidating Warehouse

Third Stop – Sort and Grade

Fourth and Final Stop (Option 1) – Reuse

Fourth and Final Stop (Option 2) – Wiping Rags

Fourth and Final Stop (Option 3) – Reprocessing

Fourth and Final Stop (Option 4) – Landfill

Taking Care of our Earth

Recycled Textiles: Where Do They Go? Part 1 –…

First Stop – Textile Recycling Bin

Second Stop – Consolidating Warehouse

Third Stop – Sort and Grade

Fourth and Final Stop (Option 1) – Reuse

Fourth and Final Stop (Option 2) – Wiping Rags

Fourth and Final Stop (Option 3) – Reprocessing

Fourth and Final Stop (Option 4) – Landfill

Textile Recycling and Our Planet

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