When you give clothes away to charity do you worry about little stains?
I've got some clothes I want to donate, but they do have small stains on them. The shoes of course are somewhat worn. I've given lots of clothes away in the past, but haven't donated the stained or extremely worn out ones. But maybe the need is so great now it shouldn't matter.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Most clothes get sorted so the least worn stuff goes to U.S.A. shops, and the rest gets stuffed into shipping containers which are sent to impoverished parts to the world.
There's some good in that, people get clothing they can afford, but it depresses local clothing industry and imposes western clothing styles on people who might prefer something else.
From a "free market" capitalist perspective the international clothing trade at all stages provides clothing at very affordable prices, even in very low income parts of the world, but there's a lot of bad that goes along with that at every step, from growing the cotton or creating other sorts of fibers, to horrible "sweat shops," to the final disposition of worn clothing in places of great poverty.
People generally like to take some pride in their clothing, and this seems to be a very basic human propensity. But the lower one falls in the economic ladder, the less clothing choices one has, and the more obvious it is that someone is living in poverty.
I can wear clothes I find in thrift stores simply because recycling things in general appeals to me. I'm not forced by circumstances to wear recycled clothes, and the clothes I do buy are not alien to my culture.
