Reduce, Recycle, Reuse: Lingerie Edition

While textiles are not the most alarming thing settling in landfills, the fact that they do not decompose means that they will continue to pollute our environment forever. When there are countless ways to recycle and repurpose textiles, there is no excuse for us to continue throwing away our old garments. Even though lingerie is intimate apparel, once again, there are several ways to reduce the amount of waste garnered by lingerie, recycle your gently used lingerie in charitable ways, and reuse what you can’t donate for other purposes. We’ve explored several different options for your unwanted lingerie, to help you reduce your own carbon footprint and even make a difference at the same time.

Bras For a Cause

Bras For a Cause is an organization whose goal is to provide bras, lingerie, bathing suits, and other items to women who have conquered breast cancer and are in need. They take donations and send them to a multitude of places to ensure women in need get free access to these items; women in shelters, breast cancer support groups, and several charities. They also have a section on their website called Pink Shopping, where you can buy pretty things to wear to support breast cancer efforts, while helping them fund their beautiful initiatives. You can send them your old bras; any condition, they can find a purpose for it.

Free The Girls

As part of Free The Girls’ initiative to help survivors of sex trafficking, new and gently used bras are accepted in an effort to assist these girls and women in making an income through selling them second hand. They accept all sizes, and different styles. There are several ways you can give bras to this organization. You can mail them to their collection centre, using their generic shipping label, you can hold a fundraising event in their honour, or, depending on where you’re located, you can drop off individual bras at one of their drop-off locations. Finding new uses for your unwanted bras is just a fraction of what this organization does to help get sex trafficking survivors back on their feet.

Supportive Start by Forever Yours Lingerie

Forever Yours Lingerie is a lingerie company that started a branch of their company to help women who are in desperate need of bras. They allow donations of gently used bras at any of their stores, and actually offer customers an incentive for doing so. However, if you don’t live near one of these stores, you are able to mail your donations to them.

Bra to Bustier Top

From the DIY Haven Instructables, there is a great tutorial on how to repurpose an old bra into a top! If you have a sewing machine, or are so handy with sewing you don’t need one, then this is a fabulous project for you! Essentially, you are taking an old strapless bra and sewing it into a piece of fabric, or maybe even an old top! While it’s not necessarily the easiest way for everyone to repurpose an old bra, there are similar ways with a little bit of Pinterest surfing to find different ways of making a bra into a top!

Repurpose Your Panties

Due to hygienic and health concerns, it’s very difficult to find a place to donate used underwear. Even if you bring them to your local donation-oriented thrift store, chances are they will be thrown away. However, Green Talk has found a solution to avoid wasting old panties with a list of 15 imaginative ways to repurpose them! For example, some types of panties (those of natural fibres) are compostable if you remove the elastic or synthetic fibres! If you’re handy with a needle, you can sew them into new underwear or clothing for children’s dolls, or even make them into a necklace.

We covered some different organizations where you can recycle your bras in a post a while back. Click here to take a look.

Have we convinced you to consider recycling and repurposing instead of throwing away? Do you know of any other organizations or companies that further this cause? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below, or on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram!