Textile recycling information sheet

 Why Bother?

How's, what's and where's of recycling textiles

What you can do

Useful Contacts

Textile recycling originated in the Yorkshire Dales about 200 years ago. These days the 'rag and bone' men are textile reclamation businesses, which collect textiles for reuse (often abroad), and send material to the 'wiping' and 'flocking' industry and fibres to be reclaimed to make new garments. Textiles made from both natural and man-made fibres can be recycled.

Why bother?

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It is estimated that more than 1 million tonnes of textiles are thrown away every year, with most of this coming from household sources. Textiles make up about 3% by weight of a household bin. At least 50% of the textiles we throw away are recyclable, however, the proportion of textile wastes reused or recycled annually in the UK is only around 25%. 

Source:Analysis of household waste composition and factors driving waste increases - Dr. J. Parfitt, WRAP, December 2002

Although the majority of textile waste originates from household sources, waste textiles also arise during yarn and fabric manufacture, garment-making processes and from the retail industry.  These are termed post-industrial waste, as opposed to the post-consumer waste which goes to jumble sales and charity shops. Together they provide a vast potential for recovery and recycling.

Recovery and recycling provide both environmental and economic benefits.  Textile recovery:

• Reduces the need for landfill space. Textiles present particular problems in landfill as synthetic (man-made fibres) products will not decompose, while woollen garments do decompose and produce methane, which contributes to global warming.
• Reduces pressure on virgin resources.
• Aids the balance of payments as we import fewer materials for our needs.
• Results in less pollution and energy savings, as fibres do not have to be transported from abroad.

Reclaiming fibre avoids many of the polluting and energy intensive processes needed to make textiles from virgin materials, including: -

• Savings on energy consumption when processing, as items do not need to be re-dyed or scoured.
• Less effluent, as unlike raw wool, it does not have to be thoroughly washed using large volumes of water.
• Reduction of demand for dyes and fixing agents and the problems caused by their use and manufacture.

How's, what's and where's of recycling textiles

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The majority of post-consumer textiles are currently collected by charities like The Salvation Army, Scope and Oxfam.  Some charities, for example Oxfam and The Salvation Army, sort collected material selling it on to merchants in the appropriate sectors.

Some post-industrial waste is recycled 'in-house', usually in the yarn and fabric manufacturing sector.  The rest, aside from going to landfill or incineration, is sent to merchants.

Collection Methods

At present the consumer has the option of putting textiles in 'clothes banks', taking them to charity shops or having them picked up for a jumble sale.

Recyclatex, a scheme run by the Textile Recycling Association in conjunction with local authorities and charities, provides textile banks for public use.  The Salvation Army, Scope, and Oxfam also use a bank scheme in conjunction with other methods.  Scope, for example, runs a national door-to-door textile collection service.  There are about 3,000 textile banks nationwide, but clothes banks are only operating at about 25% capacity.

The Salvation Army is the largest operator of textile banks in the UK, with over 2,000 banks nationwide.  On average, each of these banks is estimated to collect about six tonnes of textiles per year.  Combined with door-to-door collections, The Salvation Army's textile recycling operations account for the processing of in excess of 17,000 tonnes of clothing a year.  Clothes are given to the homeless, sold in charity shops or sold in developing countries in Africa, the Indian sub-continent and parts of Eastern Europe. Nearly 70% of items put into clothing banks are reused as clothes, and any un-wearable items are sold to merchants to be recycled and used as factory wiping cloths.

Unsold and un-wearable clothing is sent to Oxfam's Wastesaver, a textile recycling plant in Huddersfield.  These clothes are sold as raw materials to the textile recycling industry.  Wastesaver handles about 100 tonnes a week.

The European Recycling Company Limited operates a network of collecting points for second-hand shoes, most of which are re-usable.  The shoes are sorted according to their condition and then sold into developing countries, where they are locally reconditioned and resold at affordable prices in those areas.  A pilot research study is being carried out in Germany to create techniques for reprocessing excess shoe materials into alternative products, such as sound insulation board.

Processing and Outlets for Waste Textiles

All collected textiles are sorted and graded by highly skilled, experienced workers, who are able to recognise the large variety of fibre types resulting from the introduction of synthetics and blended fibre fabrics. Once sorted the items are sent to various destinations as outlined below:

Post industrial waste is often reprocessed in house. Clippings from garment manufacture are also used by fibre reclaimers to make into garments, felt and blankets.

Some items will be reused by designers fashioning garments and bags from recovered items, however this is a very small sector within the overall destinations of textiles.

From the Textiles Recycling Association, published in A Way With Waste 1999.

The Fibre Reclamation Process

Mills grade incoming material into type and colour. The colour sorting means no re-dying has to take place, saving energy and pollutants.  Initially the material is shredded into 'shoddy' (fibres).  Depending on the end uses of the yarn e.g. a rug, other fibres are chosen to be blended with the shoddy.  The blended mixture is carded to clean and mix the fibres, and spun ready for weaving or knitting. 

The Recycling Scene

Evergreen produces yarns and fabrics from recycled fibres.  Their most successful products are inblends spun from English and Chinese hemp and recycled denim, in addition to other recycled fibre blends containing wool, cashmere, silk and PET (polyester made from post-consumer recycled plastic drinks bottles and tencel, a fibre made from wool).

The reuse of clothes is promoting a new breed of designer.  NoLoGo are a team of volunteer designers set up by Oxfam who restyle donated garments and fabrics, selling them on at some Oxfam shops. 

The export market is rapidly growing as more market points are set up abroad. Some merchants also offer an array of services to encourage more collection, such as security uniform shredding prior to recycling.

What You Can Do

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• Take your used clothes to a textile bank. Contact the recycling officer in your local authority if there are no banks in your area and ask why; they may collect textiles through other means. Alternatively you can take used clothing to local charity shops.
• Give old clothes/shoes/curtains/handbags etc. to jumble sales.  Remember to tie shoes together: part of the 6% of textiles which is wastage for merchants are single shoes.
• Buy second-hand clothes - you can often pick up unusual period pieces!  If bought from a charity shop, it will also benefit a charity.

• Buy things you are likely to wear a long time - a dedicated follower of fashion can also be a green one if items are chosen carefully.
• Look for recycled content in the garments you buy. This should be on the label, though at present there is no conventional marking scheme and some companies do not always advertise the recycled content.
• Buy cloth wipers instead of disposable paper products as the product can be used repeatedly.

Useful contacts

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Charities Involved With Textile/Shoe Recycling

Fibre Reclamation

J P Textiles (Evergreen)
18 Horthorne Street
Barnsley S70 1QQ
t 01226 232630
Johnparkinson@blueyonder.co.uk