A major problem is that most of the clothes coming to America from China come with coat hangers and we buy new plastic coat hangers every time we move and there is a huge waste in how we currently store our clothing.

We’re Filling the Empire State Building (4 times) with 8 Billion Hangers Each Year

Yep, thats right. 8 Billion. Each. Year. According to Green Progress, over 8-10 billion plastic and wire hangers are sold each year, with only 15% ever being recycled. While clothes hangers, both metal and plastic are pretty small, 8 billion each year begins to add up. Fortunately, there are alternatives to hangers and plenty of ways to reuse them and keep them out of landfills.

Why aren’t they easily recycled? Well most plastic hangers are made from Polystyrene [6] and Polycarbonate [7], but they can also come from 5 other types of plastic. When these hangers all get rolling on a conveyer belt, its hard to separate them out because they tend to smash into pieces – gumming up the works, and then its really hard to identify them by their plastic. Wire hangers just turn into a giant rats nest, so most municipalities ban them. What a mess!Many overseas manufacturers are also starting to ship clothing on hangers, thus ending any need for reusing hangers as new ones are always coming in. Unfortunately the hangers also cause problems in the landfills as the polystyrene ones leach benzene and the polycarbonate ones leach bisphenol A, both of which we have reported on for their toxic effects on human and other living populations. Darn it.

Via TreeHugger