| Did you know that depending
on what county you live in, that the average monthly disposal in local
landfills of clothing and textiles is anywhere from 200-400 bags. Also, every
year people who recycle textile (clothing, including jeans) removes 2.5 billion pounds of consumer clothing waste
which would be in landfills. This is an average of 10 pounds per American. Both the
average person living in a home, (That would be you and me.) and store owners have 3 options on
disposing clothing. One, pass it to someone in need, two, trash it, and
three, recycle it! I will be the first to admit, when I hear the word
"recycle" I think, bottles, papers, and cans. Who'd ever think about
recycling those old worn out jeans. Many years ago nothing was wasted.
Every bit of left over food, and every bit of clothing was put to use.
Today American's are quick to trash things, with the attitude of "If it
breaks, I'll buy a new one." Things are changing though, and people
are starting to take a second look at saving our planet. With how
much trash is made from denim jeans, we'd like to do our part and show you
some fun projects you can make from those jeans instead of throwing them
away. If you recycle a big heavy trash bag of jeans, by the time you are
done making projects, you may only have a lunch bag full of waistbands and
belt loops.
Years ago it was un-cool to have "hand me
down" clothes. Today thrift stores are thriving! It's cool to
go retro and vintage. So never throw jeans away! Give them
away to someone in need or send them off to a thrift store. If they
are too damage, then have fun recycling them into awesome projects. Many
people use old jeans to make new crafts and sell them. Denim is a
strong firm fabric that holds up well. It can be turned into many
different projects for the home, as well as other apparel. Denim
makes a great canvas for painting on too. Many items can made and used
from your old jeans like, bags, hats, camera cases, vests, scarecrow,
crafts, pillows, bibs, and much more.
Still even after all of this about 145
billion pounds of recyclable clothing still ends up in landfills every
year. This can be drastically reduced if we all pitch in and either
donate or recycle our clothing.
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