There are so many people who go without not just in the U.S., but in the world. Places like Goodwill and the Salvation Army are usually the first ones to come to mind when people think about donating, but they're certainly not the only places. In addition to your local charities or clothing drives, there's a whole slew of national and international organizations, like Vietnam Veterans of America and Planet Aid that collect clothing donations (via Good Housekeeping).
Although donating isn't without its issues. Only 20% of donated clothes actually end up back in the domestic market, while the rest find themselves in the global used clothing trade, particularly in Sub-Saharan African nations (via NPR). However, there's two sides to this coin. On one hand, the global clothing trade negatively effects the local textile industries in regard to job security for hundreds of thousands of workers in countries like Ghana, Zambia, and Nigeria because the need to make clothes locally isn't there. But on the other hand, these used clothes create economic independence among women in these nations (via Sustainable Review).
"In buying their clothes from salaula [used clothing] rather than being presented with them by their husband as customary conjugality once prescribed, women are shaking men's domestic imperialism," writes Dr. Karen Tranberg Hansen (via Gale Academic Onefile).
Whether or not you're OK with this, is your call. But it's important to know where your old clothes are going.
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