Sudbury non-profit tackles donation crisis with new partnership, mobile app

A charity plans to resume accepting donations after Value Village agreed to clear its backlog. Closet Share, which gives free clothing, had to halt donations.

A Sudbury non-profit providing free clothing has launched a new mobile application while grappling with a backlog of textile donations, its founder describes as a “full-blown crisis.”

Closet Share officially released its app on Google Play and the Apple App Store on Monday.

Founder Melissa Porter said the tool will help broaden access to second-hand clothing.

“With our Canada-wide shipping, now that we also launched a couple months ago, it’s going to be so much easier for people to find what they need and be able to check out,” Porter said.

“It also helps save the planet, right? Because now we’re opening it up so more people have access to second-hand clothes.”

Warehouse overwhelmed

The launch comes as the organization has been unable to accept physical clothing donations since July due to an overwhelming backlog. Porter described a daily scene of frustration.

“Every day we come in and our donation bin outside is still full, clothing everywhere outside. It’s just it’s very frustrating,” said Porter.

“As I say to people, is just call first. If you call to see if the organization needs clothes, then you can bring it. Don’t just leave it outside because what happens to that ends up in landfills.”

In a social media post earlier this month, Porter penned a detailed account of the systemic challenges, titled ‘Buried in Fabric: The Crisis No One Wants to Talk About’.

“Some mornings, before anyone arrives, I unlock the warehouse door and stand completely still,” Porter wrote.

“But because of what I see: piles of fabric everywhere. Mountains of clothing. Bags stacked higher than my shoulders, sometimes higher than my hope.”

‘Endless tide’ of textiles

Porter described an “endless tide” of donations that outpaces the capacity of her small, volunteer-run operation, noting that the broader textile recycling system is collapsing.

“No one is talking about the reality: textile recycling is in crisis. Not struggling. Not stressed. In full-blown crisis,” Porter wrote.

She explained that even the last-resort option of turning unwearable items into industrial rags is failing as businesses buy less.

“When rags disappear, the question becomes terrifyingly real: What else is there left to do?” Porter wrote.

“The fabric doesn’t vanish. It sits. It piles. It suffocates small non-profits who were never meant to carry this weight alone.”

Porter emphasized the labour-intensive reality behind donated bags.

“Every bag dropped off creates work. Sorting. Washing. Storing. Photographing. Listing. Recycling. Disposing responsibly when all else fails,” she wrote.

“Good intentions aren’t enough to fix a broken system. We cannot keep absorbing the world’s textile waste. No small non-profit can.”

Path to resuming donations

Porter said she initially tried to have the excess bags of clothing picked up by thrift retailer Value Village, but the pickups were cancelled.

In a statement to CTV News, Value Village said, “We do not turn away donations. We are reaching out to Closet Share to clear up any misunderstanding and see how we can help.”

Value Village said that Closet Share is also welcome to direct their donors to our Community Donation Centre on Notre Dame Avenue in Sudbury.

Porter now says an agreement is in place with Value Village and is thankful that the thrift chain has agreed to take all of these donations.

Closet Share volunteers told CTV News that the non-profit will resume taking donations early in the new year.

Despite the challenges, Porter seems determined to continue the non-profit’s community-driven mission.

“We will keep fighting with every ounce of strength and creativity we have left,” she wrote on social media.

“We are standing in the middle of a storm with volunteers, heart and a mission that refuses to give up even when the world feels like it already has.”