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Built for people who want their donation to actually matter

BetterThanThrift.com is a free tool built in Houston, Texas. No corporate backing. No agenda. Just better information for people who care where their clothes end up.

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Free. Always.

No account required. No data sold. No subscription. Just a tool that helps your clothes do more good.

Why this needed to exist

Every year, Americans donate billions of pounds of clothing with genuinely good intentions. Most people believe their donation ends up on a local thrift store shelf, helping someone nearby. The reality is very different.

Only about 15% of donated clothing gets resold locally. The rest gets exported overseas — often flooding markets in Ghana, Kenya, and Chile and undercutting local clothing economies — or ends up in a landfill anyway. Worn-out and damaged clothes often go straight to the trash, even when they could be recycled into insulation or industrial rags.

The problem isn't that people don't care. The problem is that most people have never been given better information at the moment they decide where to donate. That's the gap BetterThanThrift.com fills.

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Condition-matched donation
A great blazer and a stained t-shirt have completely different ideal destinations. We match each to the right program.
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Local first
Wherever possible, we point people to options that keep clothing in their community — mutual aid groups, local shelters, nearby recyclers.
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Zero to landfill
Even damaged, stained, or unwearable clothing has a recycling pathway. Our goal is to make sure nothing ends up in a landfill unnecessarily.
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Global awareness
We believe donors deserve to understand the downstream impact of their donation — including the effect of textile exports on developing economies.

The story behind it

This site was built by a Houston entrepreneur who got frustrated watching the standard donation model operate with almost no transparency. Drop a bag at Goodwill, feel good, move on — without any real idea of what happens next.

After learning that most donated clothing never stays local, that surplus exports were disrupting clothing economies in Sub-Saharan Africa, and that worn-out clothes could be turned into home insulation instead of going to landfill, the question became obvious: why isn't there a simple tool that tells people this?

"People deserve better information at the moment they decide where to donate. That's the whole idea."

BetterThanThrift.com is built on the belief that most people want to do the right thing — they just need better options presented clearly. The tool doesn't attack any organization. It just gives people a smarter path based on what they actually have and where they live.

This is a Houston-built, independently operated site. No investors. No corporate sponsors. Just a free tool built to solve a real problem.

The problem we're solving

85%
of donated clothing never gets resold in the donor's local community
11M
tons of textiles landfilled in the US every year — most didn't have to be
100%
of clothing conditions have a recycling or ethical donation pathway — if you know where to look

What we are and aren't

We want to be clear about what BetterThanThrift.com is built to do — and what it's not.

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A transparency resource
We provide honest, data-backed information about how the donation system works.
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A free decision tool
No cost, no account, no catch. Just better options based on condition and ZIP code.
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Community-first
We prioritize options that keep clothing in local communities and support mutual aid.
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Planet-conscious
We believe textile waste is a solvable problem and recycling infrastructure deserves more awareness.
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Not an activist site
We're not here to attack any organization. We're here to give people better options.
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Not pay-to-play
Programs are listed because they're genuinely useful — not because they paid to be here.

Ready to donate smarter?

Use our free 30-second tool to find the best option for your clothes based on condition and ZIP code.

🌿 Find Options Near Me →