>perfectly fine clothes that's necessary

I didn't mean dispose of perfectly fine ones.

>It's only because we have too many of them.

In my case, it's actually because I'm becoming rather sphere-shaped with age, and some things no longer fit. I try to donate what I can, make others into rags (of which now I just have a giant garbage bag full of rags from the last 15 years of cutting up clothing that is too worn-out to donate -- I guess my children can deal with those when I pass).

For what it's worth, I agree with you that a focus on reducing how much we buy is super important. And, in a bit of a tongue-in-cheek way, I just wanted to highlight that there are plenty of legitimate scenarios where someone has clothes that are in decent shape but are no longer usable. And as the article highlights, I have no idea if the clothes that I drop off for donation actually make it anywhere other than a dump.

None of my clothes are perfectly fine unless I've hardly ever worn them.

The disposal of unworn clothes is probably a result of the fast fashion industry. But other than that clothes still get worn out and need to get replaced.

I wish I could repair and recolor all my clothes to make them look decent again, but I just can't.

I do fix things, but when it gets to the point where you close one hole just to find another after the next wash because the whole fabric became so threadbare, it's kinda pointless. At some point you can't fix it anymore, so it'll have to be replaced anyway.

What kinda garbage are you buying ?

I don't disagree with the general concept of reducing/reusing, but...

>Use the rags.

... OP said your comment doesn't seem to address the inevitability of disposal. You only responded with another method of reuse, but let's be honest here - rags need to be disposed of at some point, too.

Yeah but a rag isn't clothes, so it is outside of the scope of how to dispose of clothes. /s

Generally if they are made of natural stuff they should be bio degradable, so compost?

I guess, at that point, the textile is just trash? Literally, just trash it.

I think the article was more about no place to donate perfectly fine clothes, and the uncertainty what happens to them after donating. Having to throw away 5 items (e.g. because your size changes) will weigh on your conscience a lot less than having to throw away 15.

getting taller, getting fatter, skinnier, needing special clothing due to injury or pregnancy, etc...

Clothes ripping by accident, food or drink spilling on them and staining them, and so on...

We should normalize stains on clothing. Visual cleanliness is overrated, as long as hygiene is sufficient.

All primates groom themselves to have straight, clean looking, glossy hair. Humans are not going to voluntarily wear clothing that shouts “I’m one of poor or autistic.” People who are much, much poorer than the average OECD inhabitant care greatly about their appearance.

Yes, but lots of primate species also conduct a lot of rape and bullying. The best distinction I have between humans and other primates is that humans can change what they have believed to was their nature. Until somewhat recently, on this planet, all primates lived in a jungle.

I'm not saying it'd be easy.

Yeah, I'm not sure we're doing a great job of getting humans to voluntarily stop raping and bullying either.

Proportionally, we're doing almost incomparably better.

This will never happen.

Buy dark earthy tones that don’t stain easily?

This used to work with my parents' generation:

* A nice new sweater to wear around town becomes

* a nice sweater to wear around the house in the winter to save heating which becomes

* an old but still warm sweater to wear for yard work which becomes

* a ratty old sweater to wear to repair your bike or car without a care for oil stains.

I'm only one generation away and live in a town with good public transport, central heating which I can't adjust (and is always turned up too high) and will probably not be able to afford a house with a yard in the next 20 years.