What benefits are there from recycling textiles?

Don't know about you , but I tend to wear my favourite clothes till they are pretty much rags myself! The biggest saving we get from recycling clothes is in passing childrens clothing down the chain of sisters ,brothers, cousins & friends. Buy the best quality clothes you can afford and they will last for 5, maybe 10 swaps if your kids grow fast. works well while they are young but once fashion creeps in about the early teens it's a different story! We used to pass wellingtons(galoshes) thru 3 families with 6 kids and they lasted for ever. recycling fabric into new clothes is another thing altogether.

You are right. Think of all the energy required in the processing of the fibers, and other materials used to get to the fabric stage. And then the factories use much electricity, and other resources. Every time a garment is passed on to another user, the savings is not just in money spent, but in many resources. Oftentimes perfectly good, hardly worn clothing is bundled and sold very cheap as rags--much preferred would be to pass them on to another wearer until they are really classified as rags!! Older clothing is usually of better quality and better made than much of the sleazy things on the market today, at inflated prices.

The biggest savings is in raw materials for synthetics. Since these come from oil, there is a savings. However there are problems. To gather the textiles takes oil for the trucks and recycling centers. In most cases there is the problem that to recycle the fibers can be harder than starting fresh. To recycle, dyes, finishes, and special chemcials have to be removed first. That is not easy. The recycling process also introduces pollution not present when making new material. Some studies indicate that recycling can in the end cost more in pollution, fuel use, and cost than making new. And then there is the problem that the material made from recycling is not as high a quality, mainly because it has impurities. The cost to get rid of them is prohibitive. There are places for recycling and the technology is being studied and improved. But take the comparison to newspaper and plastic bottles. For both, even with all the years they have been recycled and all the government programs, it is still cheaper to make bottles and paper from virgin material. It costs money to recycle. Now ask, if you had a choice of a shirt that costs $10 or a similar recycled shirt that costs $12, which do you buy. Studies have shown people like "green" but do not want to spend "green".