What, oh what do you do with old work uniforms?
With the holidays comes the end of the year. It’s a time for family, celebration, and reflection on the year passed. It’s also a good time to clean out your closet to make room for all those gifts you received for Christmas.
Cleaning out the closet can be fun. You do a little fashion show for yourself, your spouse or your unwilling children. There’s a vote, and what doesn’t pass the approval process goes in a pile.
If you’re super organized, there’s a pile for discards, and another for donations. Let’s drill into that discard pile a second…
As of 2018, 84 percent of unwanted clothing goes into landfills. As of 2015, Americans alone were pitching around 13-million tons of clothing.
Those numbers, as you might imagine, are not going down. Most of it is due to industries like fast fashion, the other end of the apparel spectrum from workwear.
Fast fashion is cheaply made and cheaply sold so folks treat it like discarding paper. Workwear, on the other hand, even when it’s falling apart is still usable in many creative ways.
That’s where this blog is headed…
However you decide to part with your aging dungarees, know this much: there is more you can do with them than toss them in the landfill starting with giving them to someone else.
Donate your old work uniforms
You have way more power to help others than you realize, and it doesn’t have to affect your quality of life. You don’t have to cut a check. You can simply donate old workwear.
Your old clothing is not worthless, however you might see it.
Workwear that you don’t or won’t wear anymore, even with some holes, can do a lot for someone with less means. Holes can be patched, buttons and zippers replaced, sizes and styles adjusted.
Take the time to consider, what is trash to you might be just what someone needs to get a fresh start in life. Do it because you would want someone to help you out if you needed it.
Depending on the condition of your uniforms, they can take several donation routes. The easiest way is to hand them down to someone close, like a family member.
Put a pin in that idea for the next section.
There are other people who could use them if you have nobody closer. Dropping them off is as easy as a quick stop on your way to the store. Even better, you can take the donation receipt they give you to your tax preparer in April.
If those old overalls are no value to you, there’s little difference in tossing them in the bin versus dropping them at the donation center.
Organizations like The Salvation Army work hard to help former inmates, addicts, and folks who’ve fallen on hard times get back on their feet. They receive tons of donations, but there are even more good people who need all the help they can get.
Hand-me-down your old uniforms
If this sounds like a terribly outdated practice, I get it. Clothing is so accessible, we forget that handing down clothing was — once upon a time — not only normal, it was expected.
If you’re over age 40, you’ve definitely worn hand-me-downs.
Unlike fashion store hand-me-downs, workwear cuts tend to be less trendy, even though that is changing somewhat. Even the trendiest of workwear fashion is still conservative by haute couture (high end) standards.
Whereas handing down your department store clothes might not be so cool, workwear hands down like a crown and scepter. Unless you’re really destroyed those coveralls, it’s a rite of passage to give your younger family member your old uniform.
“My Mom, Dad or older sibling wore this,” is a cool thing to say about a worthy piece of clothing. It’s like immediate street-cred on a new job site.
Repurpose old workwear
If handing down and donations aren’t an option for your old jeans, as in they’re too torn up to salvage or wear ever again, what about the rest of those dungarees? If you’re not super crafty, do you know someone who is?
Here are just a few things your old workwear could become and be long after you’ve used and abused them.
1) Quilts – Somewhere, grandmothers still make quilts. Old denim and other textiles make great fabric for quilts because they’ve been worn, washed, and beaten into a soft texture. They’re also perfect because they’re usually still pretty strong so they’ll last a whole ‘other life as someone’s quilt.
2) Insulation – It’s not likely building-code but some clothing is fireproof, like most of the stuff Bulwark makes. That means you could shred your old workwear and stuff it in the wall to act as insulation. Someone who has the time could shred it to make stuffing for quilts or pillows.
3) Dog Bed – Your best friend loves you almost as much as he loves your smell. If you could make or commission someone else to make a bed from your old clothes, he would be so thrilled. Forget that store-bought bed that smells like vinyl. Your old workwear would be so much better.
4) Grocery bags – You know how it’s so fashionable to carry reusable bags to the store now? Old workwear can function as the parts necessary to make homemade bags. The best part is you don’t have to pay for those cheap ones they grocery store sells.
5) Rugs – Soft textiles like terrycloth and t-shirt material can be woven into one of those old-timey country rugs. Again, this may not be your pet project, but someone you know might be interested.
6) Cleaning rags – If nothing else, cut up those old clothes and make high-quality cleaning rags.
7) Weekend Project-wear – No other clothing makes better weekend project wear than workwear. Most likely you’re already doing this, but just in case.
That’s only a small list. If you Google “repurpose old clothes,” you’ll find endless projects.
Again, if you’re not a projects person, don’t let that stop you from finding someone who likes to make stuff. Usually, they’re just waiting for enough clothes to start their next project. You could be a lifesaver.
Recycle your old workwear
Did you know that you can recycle old clothing? Regarding the word recycle, there are a couple of subcategories.
As one means of recycling, you can shred your old workwear into smaller pieces and work it into your composting efforts. As long as it’s natural fibers, it will break down over time.
Synthetics or heavily died naturals won’t serve in this capacity. For those clothes, you’ll need to find a recycling outfit. There are many.
TerraCycle – This business sells boxes for the motivated. You buy a box or pallet, fill it with clothes, and they handle it from there. Done and good deed recorded by the scorekeepers of life, whoever that is.
Recycle Now – This site is specifically for help locating a center for recycling old corporate workwear.
Secondary Materials And Recycled Textile (SMART) – Same as above, but in a directory format.
GemText – Also a recycling location service.
Alternatively to these options, if you’re really motivated, the manufacturer of your workwear may take back your clothing item. This has become fashionable for all the obvious reasons.
Shoot ‘em an email and ask.
Destroy old uniforms en masse
If you’ve been reading through this blog thinking it’s not addressing your massive problem because you’re a business owner or operator, and you have a small mountain of old workwear to discard, keep reading.
Some uniforms would be the perfect solution to bypassing security measures by allowing criminals to waltz through the front door.
In these cases, you have only a couple of options, and trashing those old uniforms is not on the list. You need a big solution. No, not a bonfire, but something similar.
There is a company, Leigh Fibers that works with high-profile organizations to destroy their old workwear in the most secure ways. And, lest it might bother you that they would simply incinerate those fibers, never fear.
Leigh works as hard at securing your brand as they do at saving the planet. Many of those fibers, once cleared of any logos, can become reusable materials.
That’s a whole mess of clear-conscience options for letting go of your old workwear. For all the virtue points you’ll collect, it’s worth a little effort to see those clothes laid to rest the proper way.
Buy new workwear first
About the Author
Nick Warrick
Nick Warrick is the Sales Manager at All Seasons Uniforms. With over 15 years of experience in the work uniform business, he has worked with hundreds of clients across 20 different industries. Holding bachelor’s degrees in both Business Administration and Information Technology, Nick revamped the company’s online presence, offering its customers a new uniform shopping experience.