Used clothing recycling bins have been on the streets for over a decade, yet the boundary between charity and business has become increasingly blurred. According to a recent survey by Legal Daily reporters of more than 30 residential communities in Beijing and Tianjin, as well as residents in Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang and other places, a large number of used clothing recycling bins printed with words such as "charity association," "donation," and "Ministry of Civil Affairs filing number" were not set up by charitable organizations; meanwhile, online recycling platforms suffer from problems such as delayed pickup, inaccurate weight records, and rewards that do not arrive for a long time.

Key Points

  • The Tianjin Civil Affairs Bureau said that there are only 2 used clothing recycling projects carried out in the name of charity, but reporters found at least 5 charity project names in residential communities, and only 1 of 9 publicly listed phone numbers was reachable.
  • Recycling practitioner Meng Chao revealed that the used clothing actually donated to poor mountainous areas may be less than one-tenth of the total; "mixed goods" sell for about 1,000 yuan per ton, and after sorting, denim fabric can sell for 4,000 yuan, while down and cashmere can sell for tens of thousands of yuan per ton.
  • On March 17, 2022, the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued a notice prohibiting organizations or individuals without public fundraising qualifications from carrying out used clothing recycling in the name of charity.

The large-scale installation of used clothing recycling bins began around 2014. Statistics from 2019 by the Special Committee of the Waste Textile Comprehensive Utilization Alliance of the Shandong Circular Economy Association showed that Shandong Province alone had more than 23,000 used clothing recycling bins, and member enterprises of the special committee recycled 300,000 tons of used clothing annually.

A staff member of the Tianjin Civil Affairs Bureau introduced that used clothing recycling bins in residential communities fall into two categories: those set up by charitable organizations and belonging to public fundraising must have public fundraising qualifications, print the organization name, fundraising qualification certificate, and contact information in a prominent position on the bin, and be publicly disclosed on the "Charity China" platform; those placed by enterprises or individuals are commercial recycling, and the bins must not be used as fundraising boxes. The way to distinguish them is also simple - those marked "environmental protection" or "recycling" are commercial activities, while those marked "charity," "love," or "public welfare" are charitable activities.

Meng Chao, who has been engaged in secondhand goods recycling in Jizhou District, Tianjin, for 5 years, said that some people privately place recycling bins in residential communities under the name of charity, "going around each community once a month, opening the bins and hauling the clothing away, about one ton each time," targeting precisely the profit margin after sorting and processing. A search by reporters on e-commerce platforms found that some online stores specialize in customizing charity donation used clothing recycling bins, and customer service can provide sample images printed with a certain province's public welfare project and civil affairs filing number. The store's recycling bins have monthly sales of more than 100 units. Some recycling bins have also rusted and deformed due to long-term lack of management, becoming trash bins.

Although online recycling mostly has a "paid" nature, it also has many problems. A reporter placed an order on a certain platform and agreed on pickup at 5 p.m., but the clothing was actually sent out only on the third day; before sending, the weight was 3.8 kilograms, but the order page showed a recycling weight of 10 kilograms and a courier fee of 42 yuan borne by the platform. Mr. Yin in Suzhou exchanged 5 kilograms of used clothing in February this year for a 20-yuan gift voucher and redeemed a bottle of laundry detergent, but the platform has still not shipped it, citing the pandemic; Ms. Xiao in Wuhan completed recycling in May, but a 52-yuan cash red envelope could not be withdrawn for a long time, and neither online customer service nor manual customer service could be reached. In addition, online tracking pages usually only show that the clothing was transported from the courier station to the platform warehouse, and how it was handled afterward cannot be verified.

It is worth noting that on March 17 this year, the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued a notice clarifying that only charitable organizations with public fundraising qualifications can carry out public fundraising activities, and requiring charitable organizations to promptly clarify when their names are misused and report to relevant departments. Meng Qiang, a professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology School of Law, believes that misusing the name of charity to obtain used clothing stems from large profit space and low cost of illegality. The civil affairs departments whose names are misused, as well as market regulation and public security management departments, should intervene in supervision, and those constituting crimes should be severely punished by judicial authorities.

He also mentioned in the interview the background of regulatory gaps: the 2020 report of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on inspecting the implementation of the Charity Law pointed out that for more than four years since the law was implemented, most cities with districts had been at "zero penalties," and some grassroots competent departments had inadequate administrative supervision. On the Charity China platform, some used clothing recycling projects do not publish progress in a timely manner, and one project launched 5 years ago still shows "no progress description available"; by contrast, the "Used Clothing Recyclable Recycling" project initiated by the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation had more than a dozen records from June 2020 to the time of reporting, with clear dates and clothing details, including a donation on December 15, 2021, of 100 military coats and 100 silk quilts to a rural welfare home in Shayang County, Hubei, worth more than 26,000 yuan.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Tianjin Civil Affairs Bureau said that the cleanup and rectification campaign for used clothing recycling bins has been ongoing, and reports of illegal placement will be investigated and handled; as demand for used clothing in poor mountainous areas decreases, many filed charity projects have expired, and in the future used clothing recycling work may be undertaken more by enterprises, while eliminated recycling bins will also be gradually cleaned up. For the industry, this set of statements means that the public welfare cloak of used clothing recycling is fading, and transparency, corporatization, and compliant operation will become unavoidable directions.

Source: Is used clothing recycling public welfare or business? Reporters investigate where used clothing recycling goes · Originally published on 2022-07-12