RECYCLING • EDUCATION • HIV/AIDS PREVENTION Changing Lives by Recycling Clothes and Shoes 2011ANNUAL REPORT FOOD SECURITY • COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CONTENTS Message from the President ............3 Mission ............................................... 4 For the Environment ......................... 6 For People ......................................... 7 ANNUAL REPORT 2011 Worldwide Projects ...........................9 International Education ..................11 Planet Aid Post Launched ...............12 Financial Statements ......................13 Board and Contact Information ..... 14 Planet Aid is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that collects and recycles used clothing and shoes and supports international development projects. It is registered with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as a private voluntary organization (PVO). Planet Aid began recycling in 1997 in the Boston area. Today our clothes collection boxes can be found across many major metropolitan areas of the United States, helping to save resources and reduce environmental impacts. Planet Aid sells the clothing it collects, with the net proceeds donated to help people in developing nations meet basic needs. Planet Aid supports community-based development projects that improve health, increase income, aid vulnerable children, train teachers, and enhance the overall quality of life for people across the globe. Planet Aid Headquarters 6730 Santa Barbara Court Elkridge, Maryland 21075 Phone: (410) 796-1510 www.planetaid.org TCE field officers in Mozambique reach out with HIV/AIDS counseling. Message from the President In 2011 Planet Aid celebrated fourteen years of used To help bridge the information gap and clear up the confusion, clothing and shoe collection. We are thankful for all who Planet Aid launched the publication of the Planet Aid Post. have helped make us a recognized leader in the field. In this This biannual newspaper offers insight into the world of past year alone, we collected 100 million pounds of used used clothing and highlights Planet Aid’s activities around textiles. Imagine the open space lost to landfills had these the globe. Our inaugural issue was distributed to thousands items not been diverted from the waste stream — not to of locations across the United States during the last week mention the additional greenhouse gases produced or the of 2011. The feedback we have received has been great, and added cost to municipalities for having to pick up the extra by the time this annual report is published our second issue volume in the trash and truck it to a disposal site. should be on the stands. Look for it at businesses who host a Planet Aid bin or download a copy from our website. Despite our efforts and the efforts of others, only 15 percent of the total volume of textile waste being generated in the Education is indeed a core part of Planet Aid’s mission, United States is recycled. That is a tragic loss not only for domestically as well as internationally. In 2011 we provided the environment but for the many people around the globe approximately $3 million in direct support to organizations who rely on used clothing for their families. in developing countries to strengthen the quality of education being provided at the primary, vocational, and Planet Aid will continue working toward raising the U.S. university level. textile recycling percentage. Every day we find new hosts for our collection bins, whose total number recently surpassed We also continue to work with the U.S. Department of 16,000. We understand that convenience is a big factor in Agriculture in implementing programs in Malawi under getting more people to donate their clothes and shoes. Our the U.S. Government’s Food for Progress Program. First goal is for everyone to know that recycling their unwanted launched in 2006, Planet Aid’s Malawi program has been clothes is as easy as going to the gas station, or the shopping focused on training farmers’ groups to increase food mall, or to the corner store for a carton of milk. We want production, along with addressing the critical issues of our bins to be as familiar as possible, and for more people to education and HIV/AIDS prevention. Planet Aid was also understand that when they drop off their donation it will be recently awarded a grant by the USDA under the Food handled with the utmost care and for the maximum good. for Education Program to conduct a school feeding and This latter point, of course, will involve more education. nutrition education project in Mozambique. Stay tuned Americans need to know about the used clothing business for updates as we begin implementing this key project. and how a donation, no matter how small, can make a large Read more about our support of education and other key difference in the lives of others. Unfortunately, there is not development initiatives in this report or on our website at enough information available to the public that explains how www.planetaid.org. clothes recycling works, and why it is so needed. —Ester Neltrup 3 Mission Planet Aid’s mission is to inform, mobilize, and inspire individuals and communities to work together to bring about worldwide environmental and social progress. Planet Aid recognizes that the Earth’s resources are finite and that good stewardship is essential for the well-being of current and future generations. The projects we support thus aim to protect the environment, reduce waste, and increase the efficient use of vital resources. We work to strengthen and organize communities, reduce poverty and promote small enterprise development, support sustainable local food production, improve access to training and quality education, and increase health awareness and encourage healthy lifestyles, We embrace the principles of equality and self-determination in all that we do and foster cooperation and understanding among peoples across the planet. Disadvantaged populations are our priority, and we seek to empower them to create lasting positive change. Mission elements: • Protect the environment, reduce waste, and increase the efficient use of vital resources. • Strengthen and organize communities. • Reduce poverty and promote small enterprise development. • Support sustainable local food production. • Improve access to training and quality education. • Increase health awareness and encourage healthy lifestyles. • Foster direct cooperation and understanding among peoples across the planet. • Help disadvantaged populations of the world create lasting positive change. For the Environment The newest Boeing aircraft, the 747-8 Intercontinental, is Cities, towns and counties also reap rewards as a result of one of the largest planes ever built in the United States, Planet Aid’s work. By not having to collect and dispose of an weighing in at just under 1 million pounds when loaded. extra 100 million pounds of municipal waste in the form of Now imagine 100 of these colossal airliners wing to wing unwanted clothing, Planet Aid saved municipalities millions and resting on a giant scale. Together they would weigh 100 of dollars in associated costs. million pounds, which is also the weight of all the clothing and shoes that Planet Aid collected in 2011. Perhaps the most important impact of clothing reuse has to do with stopping the acceleration of global warming. The By having steered this quantity of usable clothing away from greenhouse effect, as it is sometimes called, is associated with the landfill and back into service, Planet Aid has helped the increasing amounts of CO2 released into the atmosphere. environment in several ways. The most obvious benefit, We normally think of CO2 as coming from our car’s of course, is the open space that has been spared because tailpipe or an industrial smokestack. However, when solid there were 100 million fewer pounds of waste dumped on waste such as textiles are buried in landfills they naturally the land. release greenhouse gases as they decompose. Similarly, at the other end of the clothing life-cycle spectrum, the Next, there has been far less insecticide released into the production of textile fibers and the manufacture of cloth environment. That is because by reusing clothes rather than burns considerable quantities of fuel that releases CO2. into disposing of them, there is less need to grow cotton or other the atmosphere. How much CO2 is saved through clothing materials used to produce new fabric. Cotton is the most reuse? Approximately 7 pounds of CO2 are saved for every commonly grown source of textile fiber and is vulnerable 1 pound of clothing that is spared from disposal. This means to insect damage. Given that approximately 0.02 pounds of that Planet Aid effectively saved 700 million pounds of CO2 insecticides are used to produce the cotton for one pound from entering the atmosphere last year. This is the equivalent of new clothes, saving 100 million pounds of clothing from of removing 61,000 cars from the road (According to the disposal reduced insecticide use by approximately 2 million U.S. EPA, a passenger car emits about 11,450 pounds of CO2 pounds. These insecticides would have included some of the a year on average). most hazardous nerve agents on the planet, namely, aldicarb, parathion, and methamidopho, How does this relate to you? Let’s say you fill a plastic bag with 10 pounds of unwanted clothes. By donating this Speaking of waterways, according to the World Bank, 17-20 single bag you would have thus prevented 35 pounds of percent of industrial water pollution is due to textile dyeing C02 gases from polluting the atmosphere. You also would and treatment. Making fabric consumes a suprising quantity have saved 7,000 gallons of water, and avoided the dispersal of fresh water (especially given the amount of irrigation of a significant quantity of insecticides. The upshot is that water needed to grow the crops). To produce one cotton such seemingly small acts are not to be taken lightly. This T-shirt, for example, consumes about 700 gallons of water.