How do I get rid of old clothes and towels

11 comments

1. Uniqlo is a retail clothing store, they don’t take old clothes. If they have resale value you can take them to a used clothes shop.

   Edit: NM, my husband just told me that Uniqlo does recycle old clothes.

2. If they cannot be made into money, you need to google the garbage guidelines of your city or ward. They might have special containers for that in some locations or they may have pickup days scheduled. This is done differently all over the country.

3. Zara branches usually have a large box for old clothes near the entrance.

   Failing that there should be a day for your garbage pickup where they take old clothes

4. Uniqlo will only take their own clothes and the ones from GU. But you can take the rest to H&M and they’ll give you a 500¥ coupon per each bag you donate. Not sure about the towels, probably burnables? Or call your city hall they’ll tell you.

5. Burnable garbage. It’s not a “resource” that can be recycled. I can’t imagine clothes being categorized differently from other burnables.

6. Sometimes, some places will have old clothes pickup. Otherwise they could just go into burnable trash.

7. You can just put them in burnable waste or you can find a recycling center, where they will have those containers where you throw away card boxes, they should have one for clothes too. Depending on where you live, you can easily find on internet

8. There are some fb motainai groups. I posted for some clothes and someone came for all

9. My local ward office takes in clothing donations so maybe check yours and see if they do. Towels they don’t accept so it’s either used them as cleaning cloth or throw them out in the burnables.

10. [Looks like Kawasaki recycles clothing](https://www.city.kawasaki.jp/en/cmsfiles/contents/0000037/37802/a3_English.pdf)

    Try checking the sign on your neighborhood garbage spot for the pickup day.

    The pdf mentions contacting your area “citizen groups” about clothing recycling; on the last page there’s contact info depending on which ku you live in. If your Japanese is not up to phoning them, there are email addresses provided. You could send an email and include a machine translation into Japanese; I’ve successfully made an enquiry to a Japanese public office this way before.

11. As long as the stuff isn’t totally worn out, you may be able to find someone who wants it in a “mottainai” group for your area.