by Jeroslyn JoVonn
December 11, 2025
There’s a dark side to donating clothes to charity that is fueling global textile waste.
New research reveals the hidden downside of clothing donations, showing how they contribute to environmental waste and strain charities.
A new study from Nature Cities tracked clothing donations in nine affluent cities—including Austin, Toronto, Melbourne, and Oslo—and found that charities receive far more clothing than they can sell, Earth.com reports. Much of it ends up discarded or shipped overseas, contributing to tens of millions of tons of global textile waste each year.
The cycle often begins in wealthy cities where fast fashion dominates: people buy and discard clothes rapidly. While local waste figures may appear lower, the environmental burden gets passed off to another country. In March, the UN Environment Programme reported that the world generates 92 million tons of textile waste each year. The research highlights how charities are overwhelmed by donations, as they were never intended to serve as global waste-management systems.
“We’re used to charities doing the heavy lifting, but they’ve been unable to fully handle the volume of donated clothes for a long time now,” said Dr. Yassie Samie of RMIT University in Melbourne. “Charities are driven by social welfare values and need to raise funds for their programs. However, their operations are ill-equipped to deal with the volume of used textiles that need to be reused and recycled.”
The problem stems from overconsumption and oversupply, the study found. Cheap, low-quality clothing is bought in excess, worn only a few times, before being thrown out. Many items can’t survive multiple owners or recycling, and the flood of poor-quality donations even undermines small resale businesses, forcing some thrift stores to import higher-quality used clothing.
Researchers recommend embracing “sufficiency,” encouraging consumers to buy fewer low-quality clothes and choose items they’ll wear long-term. They also urge cities to manage textile waste locally rather than shipping it overseas by creating systems to collect, sort, and process old clothes. Cities can promote repair and reuse through initiatives like lending sewing machines at libraries, teaching mending skills, or hosting clothing swaps.
To tackle fast fashion, they suggest limiting public fashion advertising and instead highlighting local thrift stores, repair shops, and swap events.
“Sustainable fashion initiatives, like second-hand retailers, struggle to compete with fashion brands’ big marketing budgets and convenient locations,” Dr. Samie noted. “Fast fashion alternatives exist, but they are under-promoted, despite their potential to significantly reduce cities’ textile waste.”
RELATED CONTENT: Michigan Native Vows To Donate $1M To Non-Profits During ‘Pull Up Season’
