Jorik Boer makes a living rescuing some of them as head of the Boer Group, a Dutch family business that began a century ago on the streets of Rotterdam with his great-grandfather collecting rags, metal, and paper in a cart. Today, from his base in Dordrecht, Boer runs five plants in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Germany. Together they collect and sort -- and resell for reuse or recycling -- up to 460 tons of discarded clothing a day.

"You need a lot of experience to know where you can sell and reuse a piece of clothing," Boer said. Through the window behind him, I could see the rapid but practiced movements of women pulling clothes from conveyors, examining each item briefly, then pivoting and tossing it into one of 60 or so bags. Each woman sorts about three tons a day, Boer said. Sorters must have an eye for fashion -- especially for the best stuff, just 5 or 10 percent of the total, which makes most of Boer's profit. In Russia and eastern Europe, prized items such as women's underwear can fetch up to five euros a kilogram ($2.50 a pound). Most lower quality material gets shipped in 55-kilogram bales to Africa, where it's sold for as little as 50 cents a kilo.