Celestial Recycling is helping answer that very question for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Ben and Ali Larsen were cleaning out the basement of their house in Ogden, Utah, when an idea came to them.
There, they found several garbage bags full of old temple garments, a kind of sacred undergarment that all members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are required to wear under their clothes. These garments — always white and generally snug, covering the shoulders and torso as well as the lower half of the body down to the knees — are worn at all times, with exceptions for sports, bathing and a few other activities. “If you can do the activity while wearing the garment, it’s recommended that you do,” Ms. Larsen said. “Because it is a symbol of your love of the Savior and your faith in him.”
The garments can be thrown away or reused, but only after the four holy markings (a backward L-like shape on the right breast, a V-like wedge on the left breast and two dashes, one at the navel and one on the right knee) that are stitched or printed onto all such garments are cut out.
“A lot of people would cut it up and use it as, like, a dish rag or to dry their car,” Ms. Larsen said. But for the most part, “nobody likes having to dispose of them,” Mr. Larsen said. “It’s labor intensive, and we see them as extremely sacred. Members really struggle with, ‘Am I treating this with the dignity and respect that it deserves?’”
Many church members, he said, simply put the issue out of sight and mind. “We’ve heard stories about members who’ve saved their garments for years.”
With more than 500,000 coreligionists in the Salt Lake City area, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints makes for one of the strongest faith communities in the United States — and also for a market opportunity, if only the Larsens could find a way to offload (and monetize) the burden of having to deal with outworn temple garments.
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