The amount of used clothing collected under a textile recycling programme in Singapore has doubled over the past two years. The garments are collected through the yellow recycling bins of social enterprise Cloop, which now has about 450 collection points islandwide, with roughly 60 tonnes of clothing sent weekly to textile recycling company Life Line Clothing in Port Klang, Malaysia — a figure that can reach 70 tonnes during seasonal peaks.

At Life Line's facility in Port Klang, about 300 workers sort some 33 tonnes of textiles a day into roughly 500 categories, deciding what to keep based on condition, material, quality and style. About half can be resold, compressed into bales ranging from 45 to 400 kilograms and exported to markets such as Kenya, Uganda and Papua New Guinea. But about 15 to 20 per cent is turned into industrial wiping cloths, 20 per cent becomes products such as carpets, only 2 per cent is recycled into new textile materials, and about 8 per cent is incinerated for energy. Life Line says about half of the material it handles brings almost no commercial return, because of rising transport and labour costs coupled with falling values for second-hand clothing.

Fast fashion garments are especially hard to resell. Zaki Suratman, Life Line's Malaysia business manager, said new items are cheaper than second-hand ones, so the second-hand business cannot rely on low prices alone and must attract buyers through unique quality and condition. He noted that as online shopping has grown, the overall quality of clothing from Singapore has remained stable, but the share of fast fashion is rising, with some garments arriving still bearing their tags. Cloop co-founder Jasmine Tuan suspects many are online orders in the wrong size that people then donate to them for circulation. She also clarified a misconception: not all clothing placed in the recycling bins is shredded into new clothes. She called for prioritising reduced consumption and repair and reuse.

Meanwhile, Singapore's second-hand clothing market continues to expand. Refash, which started in 2016, now has 17 stores locally, with annual revenue growth of 30 to 40 per cent, and has broadened its categories from womenswear to menswear, sportswear and bags. It receives more than 300 delivery orders or drop-offs from sellers daily, handles over 500,000 items a month, and also buys dead stock from brands. The market was previously dominated by women, but menswear is now in short supply. Supply chain head Cherie Chee said men tend to wear their clothes until the very end, so what they hand in is often no longer in sellable condition. Japanese chain 2nd Street entered Singapore in 2025 and now has three stores; general manager Tsutomu Nakamura plans to reach 14 to 15 stores by the 2029 financial year, with the potential to support 30 in the longer term. He stressed that customers skew young and love to shift between vintage and street styles. Industry players say second-hand fashion is moving from a necessity driven by economic need towards a pursuit of value, quality and style, shedding its old label to some extent.

Source: What happens to Singapore's unwanted clothes? · Originally published 2026-08-27