Recycling Clothing

Clothing manufacturers place big demands on the environment, so green living calls for recycling or repurposing unneeded clothes. Try these ideas to breathe new life into old clothes:

Get good clothes into the right hands. In good condition, unwanted clothing is ripe for recycling. Donate business clothes to organizations that assist job seekers and give outgrown kids' clothes to the local children's charity.

Get creative with worn-out clothing. Turn the cut-off legs of tattered jeans into plastic bag organizers, and seam up the top to create a messenger bag. Old fleece garments make cute stuffed toys, while creative quilters can make "memory quilts" from children's outworn character T-shirts.

Add to your cleaning arsenal. Ragged terry robes make stellar cleaning cloths if cut apart into large squares and holey cotton socks find new life as over-the-hand dusters.