“In the months of confinement, people did a lot of closet cleaning because they had free time, and now in summer it shows because of the change in season. In general, the response from the people of Vigo is very good”, explains Mariluz Jorge, coordinator of the Caritas project in the Diocese of Tui-Vigo. And it is that Caritas has, in the territory of the Diocese, more than 160 containers, of which 49 are on public roads in the Vigo town hall. “They are the white containers, which we manage, but we have agreements with the City Council”.
The institution, which has been active in Spain since 1947, has three plants throughout the country, where the collected clothes are taken and sorted. “Not all the clothes are in perfect condition, but the ones that are go through an ozone disinfection process and return to local projects. In this case, to Vigo”, explains Jorge. In this way, the garments that are in good condition are sent to local diocesan projects, another part is sent to social projects outside of Spain and the one that does not enter these points is recycled. Likewise, there is a small percentage (around 2%) that is used for energy recovery, by melting buttons or zippers.
On the other hand, platforms such as Vinted (application to sell second-hand products) could have been a reason for Caritas to reduce its collection of clothes, because people preferred to get some money in exchange for getting rid of what they no longer use. However, the coordinator makes it clear: “Those who really want to collaborate and support a social project will continue to do so. Our target audience is not people who use these platforms.”
Reuse is charitable
Humana is a Foundation that advocates for the reuse of clothing, trying to put an end to material waste, and that participates in solidarity projects in developing countries. So much so that, only in the first half of this year 2021, it has recovered almost three million garments in Galicia, amounting to 646 tons of textile waste.
“Unfortunately, little clothing is collected relative to the amount of clothing we dispose of. It is estimated that only 10% of this waste reaches an updated manager, and that is that in Vigo, for now, we only have 17 containers”, they detail from Humana. The Foundation has physical stores in some cities in Spain, but, above all, it has containers distributed throughout the national territory. "54% of the clothing is destined for reuse, another part is sent to associations in other parts of the world to help and the percentage of garments that cannot be reused is sold to companies that can recycle them."
On the other hand, from Humana they agree with Cáritas: “The second-hand sector is the one that has best recovered after the pandemic.” In addition, regarding the possible influence of digital platforms for the sale of used products, they are clear: "Anything that is giving clothes a second life, we think it's great."
