Repurposed Rags – The Environmentally Friendly Choice

Unbeknownst to most people, the recycled textile industry is a multi-billion dollar worldwide industry.  And you probably have participated in it at some point.  Have you ever donated used clothes to non-profit organizations?  Did you know that much, if not most, of donated clothes and other textiles are sold in secondary materials market to be reused as industrial rags?

And that’s a good thing.  According to the Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles association (SMART), recycling your used textiles (clothes, sheets, towels, etc) “has major impact on reducing greenhouse gasses” by diverting textiles from landfills. Two million tons of textiles are recycled in the US every year – the equivalent of removing 1 million cars from US highways.  That’s a bigger impact than recycling plastic (640,000), glass (210,000), and yard trimmings (170,000) combined, and almost double the impact of aluminum recycling (1.3 million).

GoKlean is proud of our small part in all of this.  We help by providing repurposed industrial rags to a variety of customers.  Our customers need effective shop rags for cleaning, staining, polishing, and other purposes.  Dirty jobs don't require flawless rags to be effective, their purpose is not to look pretty. 

GoKlean acquires materials that our customers need primarily by buying sheets, towels, and blankets from industrial laundries serving hotels and hospitals.  They come to us cleaned and sanitized, and we cut and package them based on the needs of our customers.  Recycled/reclaimed/repurposed rags work effectively while lowering costs and reducing waste in the environment.

Is there a difference between recycled, reclaimed, and repurposed materials?  Technically yes there is a difference.  Recycled means that materials are broken down and the component materials are reused.  Reclaimed means materials headed to landfills are reclaimed and used again for the same purpose.  Repurposed means that materials used for one purpose are changed in some way and used for a different purpose.

So technically GoKlean sells repurposed rags because we take materials that were once tee shirts, hotel towels, hospital blankets and sheets, and surgical huck towels, and process them into industrial shop rags.  But we aren't going to get technical on you when you call to order.

Most of our industrial rags are white, but some come in colors (colored T-shirt, huck and blue huck, and some sheets).  In many cases, colored rags are more economical, so if your process isn’t impacted by color in your rags you can save some money by selecting those. 

We also have rags that are hemmed so they won't unravel when washed (that's right - many of our rags can be used again and again stretching your savings even further).

Our repurposed industrial rags have been used in auto, aviation, and boat maintenance and manufacturing, food service, housekeeping, and shopkeeping, cabinet making, paint shops, and for all sorts of glass and other polished surfaces?

GoKlean rags can be purchased in 10-, and 25-pounds boxes as well as in bulk.

So next time you are buying rags, consider the environmental impact your choice will have and call GoKlean or one of the thousands of other suppliers who provide repurposed industrial rags.