Textiles are a very annoying thing to deal with when you're trying to handle your waste appropriately. Every "green" blog would love to remind you of how barely-used clothing often is when it gets thrown out, and urge you to send it to a thrift store instead. But if you're actually wearing your clothes until they are worn out, that means no one else wants to wear them either. That means you now have a "what to do with scrap fabric" problem, which can be hard to solve if you're not a crafty sort.

Retold Recycling addresses this need by accepting even the textiles that would usually be ineligible for selling or donation. You buy empty bags from them, which you can fill with old clothes, dishrags, and other household cloth items, regardless of whether they're at all usable (though you should wash them first). Once full, you send the bag back to them.

In this sense they are similar to Terracycle--you're basically paying for another, more consciencious garbage-collection scheme. They specifically want you to sign up for these bags as a subscription. I don't know that I go through enough clothing to need a lot of bags in a constant stream...but who knows? I'm sure I'll need a lot just for my initial cleanout, so maybe that would be a good way to do it gradually. I've ordered a set of three bags; we'll see how much volume I get out of them.

If you do have a lot of clothing items that are still nice enough for someone to buy again, you might try ThredUP's Closet Cleanout option for those, in which case they would pay you.

In another similarity to Terracycle, Retold also now has a store with sustainable products, though these aren't specifically things made from the stuff their customers sent in, as is the case with Terracycle. I'm intrigued by the loose-leaf tea brands they have, especially given that there are bulk options.