According to the EPA, approximately 4.5%, or 4 million tons of all waste sent to municipal landfills is comprised of textiles. The majority originated from household sources and known as post-consumer waste. Ninety-nine percent of used textiles are recyclable. Textile and clothing recycling can give used clothes and linens a second life and reduces the amount of waste going into landfills. Almost half of all post-consumer textile waste that is recovered is recycled to be used again.

In an effort to decrease the environmental impact of consumer waste and fast fashion, 15% of Americans choose to purchase their clothes at consignment and resale stores. This saves around 2.5 billion pounds of post-consumer textile waste from entering US landfills.

Another solution is clothes swapping, which is not about making money with your old clothes; if you want to do that, sell them at Ebay or Craigslist. It’s also not about getting rid of your old and out of fashion clothes. Instead the idea of clothes swapping is that you exchange the items you don’t wear anymore – for whatever reason. We all have them:

• That shirt that you wore once and just don’t like anymore.
• That skirt that is amazing but you don’t fit anymore.
• That dress that you’ve worn to every wedding in the last six months.
• That one thing that you loved in the shop and hated when you got home.

Most of us have lightly-worn, in-style clothing and shoes in our closets that we've lost interest in wearing. What if you could remix your wardrobe with another set of stylish, brand name clothing for only a fraction of what it would cost new? Swango allows people from across the country to swap their clothing with other members. A small per-item fee of 99¢ plus 'co-shipping' is all you'll pay. This peer-to-peer exchange allows members to upload items and earn credits that can immediately be used to get items from other members. Once your items are uploaded to the site, other members can shop for them and add them to their carts.

For every item you buy on the Website, a percentage of the proceeds is donated to Dignity U Wear, a non-profit organization whose goal is to provide needy families with brand new clothing.