Residents in the Wagga Wagga Local Government Area of New South Wales, Australia, now have a new place to dispose of old clothing. The City Council has established a permanent textile recycling drop-off point at the Gregadoo Waste Management Centre (GWMC) and added recycling points at seven rural transfer stations—Mangoplah, Collingullie, Currawarna, Galore, Humula, Tarcutta, and Uranquinty—to accept clothing, footwear, and household textiles that residents no longer need.

Resource Recovery Facility Manager Andrea Baldwin said this dedicated textile recycling drop-off service aims to give residents another channel to responsibly dispose of items that have lost their usefulness, thereby easing the pressure on local charities.

Accepted items include clothing, shoes, linen, blankets, towels, belts, handbags, and other clean household textiles. Collected textiles will be sorted: items in good condition will be donated for resale; those that can no longer be worn will be handled by a textile recycling contractor, either turned into cleaning rags or recycled into new products such as carpets and mats.

The waste transfer station at GWMC is open seven days a week, and textile recycling is free of charge. Residents can also drop off batteries, polystyrene, soft plastics, e-waste, small appliances, and various other recyclable household items for free.

Items not accepted include doonas, pillows, cushions, electric blankets and wearable electronics, large bags, mats or carpets, plush toys, textile offcuts, and wet items.

Image source: Wagga Wagga City Council

This initiative was not rolled out suddenly. In 2025, GWMC ran a textile recycling pilot that collected one tonne of textiles in just five days, demonstrating residents' strong willingness to dispose of discarded textiles.

The data also highlights the pressure on downstream processing: each year in New South Wales, 98,887 tonnes of clothing are donated to charities, of which only 15% is suitable for resale in stores; in addition, another 13,844 tonnes of donated goods end up in landfill each year. Items left beside charity donation bins, once soaked by rain or damaged, are almost impossible to reuse or recycle.

Wagga Wagga's approach moves the recycling gateway forward to municipal waste management facilities, with the local council taking on sorting and diversion. This not only relieves charities from having to absorb all the donation pressure alone, but also finds downstream outlets such as rags and carpets for old clothes that can no longer be worn.

Source: Local solution for textile waste in Wagga Wagga and villages · Originally published 2026-09-17