Hundreds of clothing bins are scattered through the SC Midlands. Not all of them are charitable

Krystal Rampalli of Columbia used to donate clothes by dropping them into the metal clothing donation bins that dot the parking lots of shopping centers across the Midlands, believing she was helping those in need.

But then she became curious about whether she was really helping others.

“I’ve had this suspicion in recent years that most of these clothing donation bins are bogus,” Rampalli said. “So many of these bins are all over the place, so I wondered how many of them are actually going towards charities. I didn’t necessarily believe that it was going to the people who really need them.”

What many Midlands residents think is a convenient way to give to charity may instead benefit for-profit companies that operate the bins, sorting and reselling the donated items for a profit. Items that can’t be sold are either recycled or end up in landfills, sometimes overseas in places such as Latin America and Africa, according to media reports.

Some items end up in landfills closer to home. According to the SC Department of Commerce, 5% of landfill space in South Carolina is taken up by clothing and other textiles. The average South Carolinian throws away about 70 pounds of clothing each year.

The exact number of clothing bins in the Midlands is not known. Officials in the City of Columbia and Richland County said they do not track the number of textile recycling companies or the number of bins in their jurisdictions. Lexington County officials did not respond.

It’s safe to say that with multiple textile recycling operations in the Midlands, hundreds of drop-off locations dot the Midlands’ landscape.

One of those textile recycling companies, Green Zone Recycling, has approximately 65 clothing bins in the Midlands and a warehouse in Columbia where they sort, bundle and recycle the donated clothes, said founder Gage Moretti.

Every Green Zone Recycling bin is labeled to make it clear that the company operates for a profit, Moretti said.

“Some of the competitors out there use charitable-sounding language or imagery that’s a little misleading to donors, Moretti said. “For us, we are a for-profit company, and we want to make sure that consumers understand that.”

When asked if his company is pushing for more transparency, Moretti said they are revamping their marketing strategy to make their mission clearer to the public.

“We want to make it more transparent on social media on what we do, how we do it and where the product goes,” he said. “We’re working on our side to make sure that the public understands that there’s a sustainable way and a responsible way to get rid of your clothing.”

About 95% of received clothes find a new purpose, Moretti said: 45% is resold as clothes, 30% is recycled into industrial wiping rags and 20% is turned into home insulation, carpet padding and similar items.

Green Zone attempts to give every donation a new purpose, but trashes about 5% of the clothes received, which ends up in landfills. Moretti said that it is one of the better numbers in the industry.

About 92 million tons of textile waste, including clothing, are produced each year. The growth of fast fashion, a business model built on rapidly producing large volumes of inexpensive clothing, is projected to push that figure to 134 million tons by 2030, according to Earth.Org.

While these bins help repurpose clothing, they can divert donations from charities that provide necessities to people in need. Fewer bins would mean more donations for non-profit charities, said Teresa Maybay, the site administrator for the Columbia office at Catholic Charities of the Midlands, which provides clothing to hundreds in the Midlands.

“The bins are just conveniently placed, like in a grocery store parking lot,” Maybay said. “It’s just easier for people to ride by and throw their donations in there than it is to come and find us.”

Columbia resident Krystal Rampalli said she now donates her clothes to Oliver Gospel and His House of Columbia. Both organizations are non-profits that sell donated clothes at their thrift stores to directly fund their community outreach and support services. “I’m definitely trying to be a lot more mindful now than I have been in the past decade about this kind of stuff,” Rampalli said. “I really don’t like the for-profit aspect of these businesses because profits have already been made with me buying the clothing.”

This story was produced in collaboration with SC Investigates, a nonprofit newsroom that partners with South Carolina journalists to produce accountability reporting.