Good Question: Recycle T-shirts?

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Here's a question from Sevil:

Is there a way to recycle cotton t-shirts -- the types one would receive through a sports league? I co-organize an adult soccer league, and we'd like to arrange for some serious t-shirt recycling.

Our simplest, most obvious answer is to take them to a local thrift store that accepts donations.

Does anyone have a more creative solution?

image via luce_beaulieu; Flickr.com

Comments (12)

i have a buisness that involves using old clothes and any kind of materials. i would gladly accept them, but would be unable to pay for them. also charities and thrift stores would accept them usually

i have 3 uses:
1. i use them as towels to dry my hair: it makes my curly hair less frizzy
2. i use them as (washable/ reusable) cleaning rags.
3. and you can sew them together like a quilt and make a comfy lazy-saturday-morning-watching-tv-in-an-old t-shirt blanket

If you don't need that many new rags/dishtowels, check with local environmental organizations about textile recycling. In NYC, you can drop off textiles for recycling (including old clothes, shoes, whatever) on Mondays at the Union Square Greenmarket. I think Goodwill takes some of the clothes and the rest is recycled.

I once advertised a bunch of old t-shirts on freecycle, and I ended up giving them to someone who used them for polishing tack for police horses. Likewise, if there is a local church that has a lot of polishing needs, they would be great for this purpose.

thrift store or orphanage

a rec center/ymca/boys and girls club might be able to use a lot of them to create 'uniforms' if you have a lot of the same colors

day care center for artist smocks or 'uniforms'

I am in the process of making a t-shirt quilt. So far, it's used a ton of my (and some of my husbands) old special t-shirts.

sew the bottoms up and cut off the sleeves and neck, voila! instant reusable shopping bag!

Old tshirts make great dustcloths, and feecycle or craigsltlist/free is a terrific way to find them a new home.

Call your local museum or arts center education department and ask if they need spare t-shirts for kids to wear for messy projects. My education department is always happy to have a bag of t-shirts for "smock" purposes.

They probably can't use anything alcohol-themed or R-rated, though.

We (at the Malaysian Nature Society) have just conducted a t-shirt recycling and repurposing workshop last week. Our facilitator taught participants how to make pillows, passport jackets and eye masks from old t-shirts. We are planning on a follow-up session to make cloth shopping bags and shag rugs out of old t-shirts.
Also, this idea might be worth trying out. I saw this while googling t-shirt reusing ideas, and will try to improvise and get a template for boxers as well:
http://web.archive.org/web/20040203153323/http://www.getcrafty.com/read/craft/features/tshirtunderwear/index.html