Recycling old clothes is not the same as charitable donation. In Beijing community clothing recycling bins and online door-to-door pickup platforms, the actual destinations of collected clothing are mainly regeneration, export, and handicraft processing, with only about 10% used for public welfare donations; social enterprises such as Tongxin Mutual Aid disinfect sorted clothing that is 80–90% new and sell it at capped prices in charity shops. Experts interviewed point out that old clothing recycling can be run commercially or as charitable donation, and should be viewed as normal market activity within the renewable resource recycling industry.

Key points

  • Among the uses of old clothes from online door-to-door pickup recycling platforms, public welfare donations account for about 10%, with the rest mainly used for regeneration, export, and handicraft processing.
  • Beijing social enterprise Tongxin Mutual Aid disinfects sorted clothing that is 80–90% new and directly wearable, then sells it for 5 to 40 yuan in charity shops located in migrant worker communities, with proceeds used for operating costs and support for migrant workers' cultural development and education for migrant children.
  • Research findings from the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) show that every 1 kilogram of used clothing used can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 3.6 kilograms and save 6,000 liters of water.

A reporter in a Beijing community saw residents putting clothes into a recycling bin. When asked where the clothes go, the person said, "I'm not sure, it should be donated to mountainous or poor areas, right?" In communities without old clothing recycling bins, residents mostly replied that they did not know about recycling channels, simply threw clothes away, or kept them stored at home, showing low enthusiasm for participating in old clothing recycling; some community recycling bins also did not clearly state the purpose of recycling.

In the view of Professor Jia Xijin, deputy director of the Institute of Social Organizations and Social Governance, there is a misconception in equating old clothing recycling directly with charitable donation. She said old clothing recycling can be either commercial operation or charitable donation; if it is commercial operation, old clothing recycling is an industry and part of the renewable resource recycling industry, and should be regarded as normal market activity. Dong Zhimin, general manager of Beijing social enterprise Tongxin Mutual Aid, introduced that in addition to poverty alleviation donations, upcycling, and recycling by environmental companies, the organization draws on the charity shop model of the UK and US, disinfecting the 80–90% new, directly rew wearable portion of collected clothing and selling it, priced at 5–40 yuan. The shops are located in migrant worker communities, with the aim of lowering living costs for migrant workers and providing help with dignity.

Which disposal method is more environmentally friendly? Associate Professor Yang Zhongkai of the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology believes that second-hand clothing trading is the most energy-saving way to recycle old clothes: after washing, disinfection, and other processing, clothes flow back to the second-hand market for sale, causing minimal damage to clothing material performance, with basically no environmental pollution in the recycling process.

The resource utilization of waste textiles mainly follows three paths: physical-mechanical, chemical, and physicochemical methods, which can treat single-component or multi-component waste textiles separately, ultimately producing textile fibers and textiles, building materials, toy raw materials, and more. For example, mixed-component waste textiles can be turned into soundproof cotton, insulation cotton, boards, and other building raw materials through physical-mechanical methods such as re-cutting, crushing, opening, and thermomechanical processing; single-component waste polyester textiles can be recycled through chemical methods such as alcoholysis and repolymerization to obtain recycled polyester chips with good filament spinnability, producing fibers and textiles comparable in performance to virgin polyester. Yang Zhongkai also pointed out that source research and development is equally important, and green fiber raw materials with green production processes and biodegradable products should be used, such as polylactic acid fiber, which under certain conditions can be completely degraded by microorganisms into carbon dioxide and water. He also said that high value-added recycling and reuse of waste textiles still faces difficult problems that need to be solved, including high value-added recycling technology for mixed-component textiles, quality testing and evaluation methods for regeneration processes and recycled products, and new processes and new efficient green catalysts for chemical recycling of waste polyester textiles.

China generates a large amount of waste textiles every year, and most old clothes in daily life are landfilled or incinerated as household waste, posing environmental risks. The National Development and Reform Commission, together with relevant departments, issued the "Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Recycling of Waste Textiles," pointing out the direction for building a resource-recycling system in the textile industry and clarifying the development path for the waste textile regeneration industry.

Source: Where do old clothes go after recycling? · Originally published on 2022-05-02