A vest printed with the words "Taichung City Dali District Neighborhood Chief" recently appeared at the Merkato market in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. According to Taiwanese media reports, a Taiwanese traveler on an independent trip there in early September 2026 saw a man wearing this Chinese-language vest, took a picture, and posted it online, sparking discussion. Neighborhood chief vests usually do not have names embroidered on them to facilitate handover. It is said to have been transported to Africa through old clothes recycling channels, and some second-hand clothes in Taiwan are also sorted by operators and then exported to Southeast Asia, Africa, and other places.

The whereabouts of this vest have once again drawn attention to the actual flow of Taiwan's old clothes recycling. According to statistics from the Ministry of Environment, Taiwan's old clothes recycling volume in 2024 was about 82,000 metric tons, of which about 42% entered the second-hand clothing sales system, 34% was downcycled, and the remaining 24% was made into solid recovered fuel (SRF) or sent for incineration, meaning not all of it is worn again by others.

According to the Ministry of Environment's "Guidelines for the Public on Recycling Old Clothes," old clothes recycling aims to promote the reuse of second-hand clothes and extend the lifespan of clothing. Old clothes handed in by the public are graded by quality and type before their destination is decided: those of better quality and still suitable to wear can be reused through donation, sale, or exchange; those handled by resource recycling operators may, after manual sorting and classification, have still-wearable clothes sold and exported to overseas second-hand clothing markets, with some remaining in domestic circulation or donated to institutions in need. Old clothes put into recycling bins approved by local governments are collected and transported by approved social welfare groups, public interest units, or recyclers, which then select better items for reuse.

Regarding recyclable items, the Ministry of Environment pointed out that outerwear, outer pants, skirts, dresses, vests, coats, suits, and other items that are still usable after cleaning and organizing fall within the scope of old clothes recycling, and should be cleaned, kept dry, and properly packaged before being handed in. Quilts, pillows, bed sheets, bed covers, hats, underwear, shoes and socks, curtains, towels, carpets, belts, leather bags, gloves, cushions, plush toys, and dolls are not part of general old clothes recycling; clothing that has lost its recycling value should be treated as general waste and handed to garbage trucks. The Resource Circulation Administration also provides a nationwide physical recycling site search to help the public confirm legal recycling channels.

From a local public office vest that flowed into an African market to the graded destinations of more than 80,000 tons of old clothes a year, Taiwan's old clothes recycling system has both a second-hand clothing chain exported overseas and separate streams for downcycling and energy recovery. For operators specializing in exporting second-hand clothes, the occasional "Taiwan trace" on the street is evidence that this transoceanic supply chain is operating; for policymakers, how to strike a balance between reusing usable clothing and disposing of low-value old clothes remains a key point for future observation.

Source: Where do the clothes in old clothes recycling bins end up? Taiwan's "Neighborhood Chief Vest" unexpectedly appears in 1 country, and the destination of 82,000 tons of old clothes each year is exposed | Wei Fucheng | Storm Lifestyle · Originally published on 2026-09-20