China generates more than 20 million tons of waste textiles each year, yet the recycling rate is only just over 20 percent. Collection bins are everywhere in residential communities, but controversy over the old clothing recycling industry has never stopped: Is the industry really a mixed bag? Where do the collected old clothes ultimately end up?

A Clear Policy Roadmap

Since the start of this year, the national level has accelerated efforts to shore up the shortcomings in waste textile recycling. On April 11, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Commerce, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Promotion of Waste Textile Recycling, proposing a two-step goal: by 2025, a preliminary waste textile recycling system will be established, with a recycling rate of 25% and recycled fiber output reaching 2 million tons; by 2030, a relatively complete recycling system will be built, with a recycling rate of 30% and recycled fiber output reaching 3 million tons.

The Sorting Journey of a Piece of Old Clothing

Feimayi, which started with an online appointment and free door-to-door pickup model, is one of China's earlier comprehensive old clothing processing platforms and currently covers more than 330 cities. After users place an order, a courier picks up the items at their door, and the clothes are transported to processing centers in various locations, where they are weighed, consolidated, and then enter the sorting workshop. The first threshold in sorting is whether the item can be worn again—damaged clothing, intimate apparel, socks, and the like are all excluded. Then, large industrial washing machines (with a single wash capacity of over 100 kilograms) complete washing and drying, followed by ozone and ultraviolet disinfection, before classification by condition, material, and style.

Four Outlets

After cleaning and disinfection, old clothes head to different channels. Cotton coats and other items of better quality and strong warmth retention are handed over to public welfare groups or foundations, disinfected, and then transported to remote mountainous areas; because the needs of aid recipients are increasingly diverse, the platform also funds the purchase of brand-new clothing and study and daily necessities to supplement assistance. In terms of recycling, cotton, wool, nylon, and polyester clothing is sent to recycling factories, where zippers and buttons are removed and the items are shredded, then opened and carded through physical and chemical methods: cotton fabric can be broken down into textile threads or made into mops, packing straps, rags, and labor protection gloves; crushed cotton and linen can be made into carpets or insulation cotton for agricultural greenhouses; recycled fibers can also be used for eco-friendly bags, cushions, and even building soundproofing materials, filling materials, and non-woven fabrics. Chemical methods that break down and recombine polymers to make new fibers are still difficult to promote quickly in the industry because they require raw material fiber purity of over 95%. Old chemical fiber clothing that cannot be recycled is sent to environmental protection enterprises for green degradation, to avoid pollution of the atmosphere, soil, and groundwater caused by landfill and incineration.

Export Is an Important Link

After domestic charitable donations saw a sharp decline in demand for old clothes, summer clothing and other items unsuitable for aid were directly exported to regions such as Africa and Southeast Asia. According to statistics, about 50% of old clothes in the United States are exported each year, about 65% in France, and about 30% in China. Affordable and good-quality Chinese second-hand clothing is quite popular in Africa, and the second-hand clothing business has become an important economic sector in some African countries, making up for the shortcomings of local light industry. Feimayi uses export profits to balance costs such as logistics, cleaning and disinfection, labor, and environmental recycling, and invests in public welfare projects such as "Love Forests" and "Book Corners."

The Environmental Ledger

According to statistics from the China National Textile and Apparel Council, every 1 kilogram of old clothing recycled can reduce carbon emissions by 3.6 kilograms, save 6,000 liters of industrial water, and also reduce the use of 0.3 kilograms of chemical fertilizer and 0.2 kilograms of pesticides. The Feimayi Environmental Recycling Emission Reduction Accounting Report released by Carbonstop in July 2020 shows that for every 1 kilogram of old clothing recycled and processed by the platform, carbon emissions can be reduced by 5.35 kilograms.

From sorting and cleaning to aid, recycling, degradation, and then export, old clothing recycling is an industry with a long chain and high costs. The policy goals are already clear, but to make it operate efficiently, it is necessary both to shore up the system's shortcomings and for consumers to do their part at the first step of disposal.

Source: The World Is So Big—Where Do the Old Clothes You Recycle Go? · Originally published on 2022-05-05