The old clothing recycling network in the Uckermark region of Brandenburg, Germany, is visibly shrinking. According to local media nordkurier.de, only one operator, Humana Kleidersammlung GmbH, still places old clothing collection bins in Prenzlau, two of which are located in the prefabricated housing estate on Georg-Dreke-Ring, near a shopping center. Garbage can be seen scattered around the containers, and residents' opinions of the service are mixed: some see it as a way to dispose of clothes they no longer wear but that are still wearable, while others complain about the mess around the sites.

Humana confirms that the number of available collection points is declining. Company PR manager Julia Breidenstein said people want their discarded but still wearable clothes to be worn again, but such opportunities are currently diminishing. She attributed the withdrawal of collection bins to several factors: the fast fashion trend has changed the quality of some newly produced clothing; at the same time, collection and sorting costs are rising while the selling price of second-hand clothing is falling. However, she stressed that old clothes are still in demand at home and abroad—the clothes Humana collects are sorted and then, depending on their condition, sold on in Germany, Europe, Asia or Africa. According to the company, it currently operates 25 sites and 32 collection bins in Prenzlau city and the districts of Güstow, Dedelow and Seelübben; only one site remains in the rest of the Uckermark, in the Kuhheide district of Schwedt.

The German Red Cross (DRK) has completely withdrawn from collection operations in the region. Nico Brückmann, chairman of the board of the DRK Uckermark West/Uckermark Barnim district association, told nordkurier.de that the association has withdrawn old clothing collection from its entire jurisdiction, recalling all 109 collection bins. He cited the main reason as the collapse of the second-hand textiles market: surplus clothing can no longer be handed over to commercial recyclers, meaning collection costs are significantly higher than the income from passing on the clothes, while clothing unsuitable for resale must still be disposed of by the DRK at its own expense.

At present, people can still donate at the DRK clothing rooms in Prenzlau or Templin, where demand for second-hand clothing is broadly stable. But the association also points out that outside opening hours, bags of clothing are still being left in front of its premises, and Brückmann says a large proportion of them can no longer be reused. For residents planning to dispose of old clothes, the report reminds them to make sure the clothing is clean and dry and to take it only to locations that actually accept clothing, such as the clothing room at Diester, the municipal meeting place in Prenzlau, or Zweite Kapitel in Templin.

From a trend perspective, this local contraction reflects the squeeze on both ends of the old clothing collection industry: collection and sorting costs are rising at the front end, while second-hand selling prices are under pressure at the back end, making it difficult even for charitable organizations to cover costs through resale; at the same time, however, sorted wearable clothing is still circulating across regions and even across borders, showing that the value of sorting and export channels has not disappeared—it simply places higher demands on operational efficiency and the quality of supply.

Source: Immer weniger Altkleidercontainer in der Uckermark · Originally published on 2026-09-23