Upscale resale: Recycling high-end fashions, funding patient care

If you’ve just joined us today, it’s Midday on the Environment. More than 6% of waste in the US comes from household textiles.The Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association, or SMART, a network of companies involved in fabric recycling, says that 95% of textiles can be reused or recycled. Old curtains, towels, sheets, shoes, stuffed animals and more can all be turned into new stuff.

And when it comes to clothes, what better way to recycle them than to have someone else wear them?

Forbes Magazine reports that in 2021, the global market value of secondhand clothes was $96 billion.

Joining Tom now are two volunteers with the Women’s Board of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, which runs stores downtown and in Cockeysville that sell secondhand clothes to raise money for a range of patient-care services at the hospital.

Susan Flax Posner is a volunteer at RENEWAL Upscale Resale at the Hunt Valley Town Centre in Cockeysville.

Joan Quinn volunteers at the Carry On Shop on East Monument Street, on the Johns Hopkins Medical Campus in Baltimore…

Susan Posner and Joan Quinn join Tom in Studio A. 

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