Wagga Wagga in New South Wales, Australia, has recently introduced a free textile drop-off service for residents, accepting old clothing, footwear and household textiles at the Gregadoo Waste Management Centre and seven rural transfer stations across the local government area. The measure follows a 2025 pilot and is now being formally rolled out.

According to the 2021 Thread Count NSW textiles data report, households in the state discard 137,316 tonnes of textiles each year, of which charities receive 98,887 tonnes in donations, while only 16,811 tonnes are actually resold locally — about 85% of donated textiles go unsold. Charities are under considerable pressure from illegal dumping, damaged items and poor-quality donations, and NSW spends about A$1.67 million a year handling discarded donations. Research also shows that half of the people who leave items outside charity shops or beside donation bins do not realise those items often end up being treated as rubbish.

Andrea Baldwin, resource recovery facilities manager at Wagga City Council, said the pilot collected about 1 to 2 tonnes of textiles in its first week, a significant share of which was still suitable for charity resale — which is why the service is now being made permanent. She noted that illegal dumping outside charity shops is very obvious, and that "from an environmental point of view and from the point of view of supporting existing charities, it's important to give the community another drop-off option." Based on experience at similar-scale facilities, she expects the project to collect about 100 to 120 tonnes of material a year, equivalent to roughly 12 large truckloads.

Accepted items include clean household goods such as clothing, shoes, sheets, blankets, towels, belts and handbags; duvets, pillows, cushions, electric blankets, wearable electronics, large luggage bags, mats, carpets and plush toys are not accepted. The Gregadoo Waste Management Centre is open seven days a week from 7am to 4.30pm.

From an industry perspective, council-led free drop-off channels are becoming a diversion supplement to the charitable donation system, promising to increase textile recycling volumes while easing the chronic problem of donations overwhelming charity shops and then being largely landfilled or incinerated.

Source: Tonnes of textiles set to be collected as free drop-off service opens for city · Originally published 2026-09-18