Textile recycling refers to the reprocessing or reusing of old clothing and garments, or even scraps of clothing discarded from factories and other manufacturing centres. It has the potential to play a valuable role in sustainable living, yet hardly anyone thinks to recycle such items.
According to the UK’s Environmental Protection Agency, approximately 6.8 million kgs of used clothing is generated per year, yet only a small fraction of this amount is donated or recycled. In addition, the Environment Agency estimates that textile waste amounts to roughly 5% of all household waste that goes to landfill sites.
Clearly, there is a large scope for improvement in the area of clothes recycling. Discarded, unwanted textiles can be used by many businesses, not only clothes manufacturers and fibre recycling companies, but also in industries such as insulation, carpet backing, and paper products. Markets already exist for recycled clothes, the only problem is encouraging people to do so.
Second hand clothes/charity shops
The most traditional way of recycling old clothes has been to simply dump them at the nearest second hand/charity shop. This is not technically ‘recycling’
Recycling, or reuse of clothes in this way is especially popular in the case of children’s clothing, especially with parents who cannot afford to regularly buy new clothing. After all, most kids will grow out of their clothes in the space of a year or so, meaning they are rarely worn out in this time.
By donating clothing to second hand shops and charity shops, not only is the amount of textile waste significantly reduced, but jobs are also created, and part of the proceeds of their sale goes to good causes (the charities supported by the shops).
Clothes Recycling Agencies
One of the problems with donating to charity shops is that, quite simply not everyone has the time or inclination to do so. Gathering up all their old clothes and lugging them to the shop for nothing more than a “thank you” gesture doesn’t do much incentive-wise to persuade people to recycle their clothes.
This helps to explain the rising popularity of clothes recycling agencies. A relatively new concept, clothes recycling agencies actually provide an incentive for people to hand over their old, unwanted garments. Not only do these agencies pay for old clothes, they will even come to pick them up from the home of the person donating them.
Such agencies offer a fantastic service to the community – thanks to their existence, there is no reason why anyone should avoid recycling their clothes after they no longer want them. As these companies slowly become more popular, it’s hoped that the concept of textile recycling will take on the same level of social importance as other recycled products do.
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