Phase 1: Collect underpants Phase 2: ??? Phase 3: Profit

March 5, 2022 1:54 AM

So much old clothing to dispose of! I found a site online but I can't tell if it is legit.

The org is called Intimates N More, located in Maine. https://intimatesnmoredonation.weebly.com/

They accept all kinds of underwear, bras, etc. Great. I hate adding stuff to the waste stream, but I don't want to get scammed somehow, or waste time/money/fuel on shipping. The only thing that really gave me pause is a line on the registration page that says dirty underwear should be sent as-is: "recycled intimates that can be worn again should not washed." Eww, wtf?

Anyone familiar with this group? Also interested in specific places to send this stuff instead if there is a better option. No tips or suggestions for recycling/alternative uses, please. I looked around but couldn't find anything about local intimates recycling donations in my area (nothing is in good enough condition for re-use.) I really just want it gone and trashing stuff bums me out.

posted by prewar lemonade to Grab Bag (10 answers total)

Best answer: Oh god oh god oh god. This:

The best rule of thumb is to wrap a used condom in toilet paper, a tissue, or even put them in zip lock baggies, and mail them to us.. All these items are biodegradable, so this is the most environmentally-friendly way to throw away a used condom.

Wrap a used condom in a tissue and mail it to them? A balloon full of sperm, just wrapped in a tissue and popped in an envelope and sent through the mail? HARD NO.

Yeah, this is sketchy. Plus the fact that literally nothing comes up when you search their name, other than their not very professional website.
posted by MexicanYenta at 4:02 AM on March 5, 2022 [6 favorites]

Best answer: Parade is a legit company and they will recycle (washed!) underwear, but not bras or swimsuits. They send you a bag and you send it back, all free, and will give you a coupon code for their site in return.

I agree that the site you doing looks very sketchy, from it being on weebly, the formatting and text, and that they will take dirty underwear, so gross.
posted by sizeable beetle at 4:07 AM on March 5, 2022 [4 favorites]

Best answer: I, too, hate to throw away perfectly good, slightly-used underpants but I've found that there really aren't legit places to donate them. I put mine in the textile recycling bin. Your other choice would be finding someone very frugal and/or desperate with your same taste in underwear and giving them directly to a person. If it makes you feel better, underpants presumably make up a very small portion of your overall clothing waste. (Oh also I have composted mostly-cotton underpants in the past, but that worked best for, like, one or two pairs, and I don't know maybe it was a bad idea, microplastics from the spandex in my compost, etc.)

Bras you can probably move on your local Buy Nothing/Trash Nothing/Zero Waste group, or try one of these organizations.

I am not 100% clear on what that site is up to (is it just a joke? some kind of clickbait/SEO thing?) BUT at a minimum they're encouraging people to send used condoms to a PO Box, so I feel like we can conclude that they are not doing the Lord's work here. Spare the postal workers of Sangerville ME! Do not send any packages to this company!
posted by mskyle at 4:21 AM on March 5, 2022 [6 favorites]

Best answer: Oh no no no. Ok so if you click around on the website you'll see they have a PayPal address of @PlatinumPlus. If you google this you'll find a Facebook page for Platinum Plus recycling, which links this site you found and has very similar messaging. They also say to send them your used tampons and pads, for recycling, how fun. On that Facebook page they link to a wix website called Platinum Plus Recycling and on that website they list a phone number. If you google that phone number you can more easily find what appears to be their original Facebook page, just called Platinum Plus, where they weren't hiding things so much.

This is the description on that Facebook page.
This is an image from that Facebook page.

Now they're just hiding it better. Don't send your clothes to these nasty pervs.
posted by phunniemee at 5:02 AM on March 5, 2022 [13 favorites]

Best answer: You can send them for textile recycling (ie. they get shredded and the fibres used to make something new) - here's an example of a company who say they take underwear, but you'd have to pay $13.50 for the privilege of them sending you a bag to submit them in.

There might be places that do it cheaper/free but I'll let you do that research! Google 'textile recycling donation by mail' or something like that.

(Sorry, I can't tell if this fits with what you want - you say "Also interested in specific places to send this stuff instead if there is a better option. No tips or suggestions for recycling/alternative uses, please." so I can't work out if that means you do or don't want suggestions for other ways of recycling!)
posted by penguin pie at 5:11 AM on March 5, 2022

Response by poster: Ahhh nooooooo! Thank you all, especially Phunniemee for your sleuthing which filled in Phase 2: Nonconsensually collect garments for fetish resale. Can't believe I was almost bamboozled! Gnomes, stop giving pervs a bad name, ugh.

(Sorry, I can't tell if this fits with what you want - you say "Also interested in specific places to send this stuff instead if there is a better option. No tips or suggestions for recycling/alternative uses, please." so I can't work out if that means you do or don't want suggestions for other ways of recycling!)

Whoops, didn't word that well, sorry. To clarify, I'm NOT looking for advice on how to turn an old bra into a flowerpot, or other ways to personally re-use or recycle such as home composting. I AM looking for links or names of groups which will take the stuff for textile recycling. Folks, please trust me when I say nothing is in good enough condition to donate to anyone to wear.

Thanks very much for all the suggestions thus far!
posted by prewar lemonade at 6:01 AM on March 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

Oh! Yeah, if you’re happy to have them recycled into insulation or whatever, that’s no problem! The ways I know to recycle underpants are very local but for instance in my city (in Massachusetts) there are textile recycling bins at each of the schools, and I have friends who subscribe to compost pickup services that will also send you a textile recycling bag that they’ll pick up along with the compost.

Look for textile recycling instead of underwear donation and I think you’ll find more options (also good for rags). Your municipality or waste removal company may also have suggestions.
posted by mskyle at 6:50 AM on March 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

That site really wants used, ideally unwashed underwear to sell to people who want it for sexual desires. It's a kink, probably not uncommon. I found a 2nd facebook page that says they help you sell used underwear.

Bras are full of elastic and synthetic fabric and are not recyclable.. Shredded textiles have no value. The United States generates many tons of unwanted textiles, and elastic and synthetics have no market. You can probably pay somebody to take it, but it's not an environmental bonus. Some stuff is more costly to recycle than it's worth, and has to go in the trash. The effort put into trying to recycle stuff that is poorly suited for recycling can be used more effectively.

What you can do is spend that time and energy investigating the overabundance of clothing, and encouraging everybody to buy less. Ask your employer, the 5K race committee, the volunteer event, etc., to stop making tshirts for events. Thrift shops just bundle them for rags or they get shipped to other countries that don't want them. Adam Minter's books are a good start. There's a lot of information on the web about fast fashion and the effort to recycle America's used clothes.

You used up this stuff, you didn't buy more than you needed. That's the appropriate thing. Write or call your clothing suppliers, ask them to use processes that are less environmentally damaging, buy from the most responsible suppliers you can find, and don't feel guilty.

For a little source reduction, if you don't put anything with elastic in the dry, it will last 3x longer, saving money, a little electricity, and reducing waste.
posted by theora55 at 7:11 AM on March 5, 2022 [4 favorites]

Knickey, an underwear company, also has a recycling program: https://knickey.com/pages/recycle
posted by graticule at 8:46 AM on March 5, 2022

> Phase 2: Nonconsensually collect garments for fetish resale

great thread, thanks, now whenever we see "Phase 2: ???" we all know how to autofill the blank
posted by are-coral-made at 1:35 PM on March 5, 2022 [9 favorites]