Multiple Kolping families (Kolpingsfamilien) in Germany's Osnabrücker Nordkreis have suspended acceptance of old clothing donations, and the Kolping-Depot collection point in Ankum no longer has old clothing collection bins. The common dilemma facing local associations: warehouses are full, buyers are scarce, and prices have collapsed.

Key Points

  • Multiple Kolping families in Osnabrücker Nordkreis have suspended old clothing collection, and the collection bins at the Ankum collection point have been removed.
  • The crux is the combination of three major problems: warehouse overflow, lack of downstream buyers, and falling old clothing prices.
  • These associations can currently only wait and see how the situation develops, waiting for the conditions for resuming purchases to return.

For many volunteer associations, old clothing collection was originally a stable source of income—residents put unwanted clothing into collection bins, and the associations then sold it by weight to sorters or wholesalers, using the proceeds for charitable causes and association expenses. But after the market reversed, this chain stopped working. The scene described in the original article is: warehouses full of old clothing awaiting processing, buyers failing to appear, and collection prices falling sharply.

In Osnabrücker Nordkreis, some Kolping families chose the most direct approach—stopping acceptance. The old clothing collection bins in front of the Kolping warehouse in Ankum are no longer kept, and it is "suspended until further notice," with no certainty as to when it will restart.

It is worth noting that the pressure does not fall only on donors. When local associations withdraw, residents' old clothing loses its nearest outlet, and some clothing may end up in household waste or be stored at home for a long time. For operators in the second-hand clothing export and sorting business, this is also a signal: the collection end within Europe is shrinking.

Source: Wohin mit den Altkleidern? Mehrere Kolpingsfamilien stoppen die Annahme · Originally published on 2026-09-29