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Greenpeace GPS-tracking experiment (Austria, 2024)
Greenpeace put GPS trackers into 20 donated clothing items in Austria. They traveled ~81,000 km across three continents and nine countries. Many ended up in countries without robust waste systems, where they were stored, burnt, or destroyed.
Source: VOL.ATOne tracked item ended up in Pakistan after passing through Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Malta, and Oman.
Source: VOL.ATGerman TikToker / “Moe” AirTag experiment
An Apple AirTag hidden in donated shoes (Munich, Germany) tracked them ~800 km through Zagreb and Bosnia & Herzegovina, where they were sold in a secondhand shop.
Sources: Croatia Week, Evidence NetworkThe tracker showed the shoes reappeared in a shop hours or days later, contradicting the idea donations always help locally.
Source: Evidence Network“What Really Happens to Unwanted Clothing?” (GreenAmerica, US)
Although many Americans donate clothes, textiles still make up a large share of U.S. municipal waste. Unsold donations are often shipped overseas, recycled into rags, or landfilled/incinerated.
Source: Green AmericaThe report notes: “Many thrift stores don’t track where their donations go … what doesn’t sell is then sent to textile recycling centers or overseas.”
Source: Green AmericaNIST / U.S. data on textile fate
The U.S. National Institute of Standards & Technology reports that only about 15% of used clothes/textiles are reused or recycled. Around 85% are sent to landfills or incinerated.
Source: NISTTrashing, exports, and local dumping in lower-capacity regions
In The Guardian article “Dirty laundry: what really happens to your clothes when you donate them to charity,” authors cite that only ~16% of donated clothing in Australia is sold in charity shops; the rest is exported, reused, or turned into rags.
Source: The GuardianThe Guardian also notes that ~40% of secondhand clothing arriving in Ghana is unsaleable and ends up as waste.
Source: The Guardian“The Myth of Donation” (Threading Change)
Threading Change argues that a large share of donations “fail to sell” and are diverted to exports, landfills, or downcycling due to supply chain opacity and low margins.
Source: Threading Change

Multiple peer-reviewed studies show that globally, ~70-75 % of textile waste is landfilled, with only a quarter or less entering reuse or recycling streams.¹ The path from donation to reuse is far from guaranteed. That’s why at Hibearnation Wear, we don’t just trust good intentions — we commit to taking back your garments and reincorporating them into new, circular products.