Qingdao's used clothing recycling industry emerged around 2021, exporting about 2,000 tons of used clothes to Africa each year, accounting for roughly 20% of the local civilian waste textile total. Practitioners collect from residents by the jin, and after sorting, some are exported while others are recycled domestically. A hundred-billion-yuan market is accelerating into shape.

Key Points

  • Qingdao exports over 2,000 tons of used clothes to Africa annually, about 20% of civilian waste textiles.
  • Collection points buy from residents at about 0.3 yuan per jin, and sorting plants sell to southern export companies at about 5,000 yuan per ton.
  • At most half of collected clothes can be exported; the rest is sold to other collection points at about 0.1 yuan per jin for reuse.

Collection Scene: Buying by the Jin, Nearly 1,000 Jin Collected Daily

January 2022, Qingdao. Yuan Dequn, 33, left his company job in early 2021 and co-founded "Qingdao Desheng Used Clothing Recycling" with a partner. Every morning before 7 a.m., he drives to residents' homes to pick up goods, often covering over 200 kilometers a day. At busiest, one person visits fifteen or sixteen households, collecting nearly 1,000 jin of used clothes daily on average.

Resident Ms. Wu sorted out 300 jin of used clothes from her home in a Fushanhou community and sold them for nearly 100 yuan. Yuan Dequn says clothes, shoes, bags, quilts, and plush toys are all collected, at an average price of about 0.3 yuan per jin. The collection standard is "not dirty, not torn, not worn out, and not affecting resale." Near the year-end, when families do major cleanups, collecting two or three hundred jin from one household is common, with the most reaching five or six hundred jin.

Sorting and Transfer: Thirty to Forty Sorting Plants in Qingdao, with Clear Division of Rough and Fine Sorting

Yuan Dequn's basement warehouse is about thirty to forty square meters, where he handles "rough sorting," picking for seven or eight hours a day. His partner Xiao Jiao says there are about thirty to forty plants in Qingdao that buy used clothes from collection points and sort them, concentrated in Laixi, Jiaozhou, Chengyang, and Pingdu, but these are just transfer stations.

The head of a sorting plant in Jiaozhou says the factory's business includes sorting, distribution, and reuse, with trucks loading and unloading used clothes almost daily. "We also do door-to-door collection, but most goods come from collection points; we are their 'upper buyer.'" After sorting, used clothes are packed and shipped to southern port cities like Hangzhou and Guangzhou, then loaded onto ships for export by local export trading companies.

The sorting list is extremely detailed. Summer clothing alone can be divided into over 100 categories, including T-shirts, shirts, casual pants, jeans, backpacks, leather bags, dresses, and silk scarves. Damaged, stained, and yellowed clothes, as well as high heels and irregularly shaped bags, are picked out. After quality inspection, they are weighed and compressed into rectangular blocks with a hydraulic baler. Each bale's weight is per customer requirements, with an A4-printed category list attached for overseas customers to check.

Export Destinations: Ninety-Percent-New Winter Clothes Sold to Russia, the Rest to Domestic Collection Points

Yuan Dequn says a considerable portion of used clothes is sold to Africa and Southeast Asia, while ninety-percent-new winter clothes are exported to Russia, and only higher-income locals there can afford them. "Chinese clothes are brightly colored, matching African aesthetics." In terms of price, Qingdao sorting companies sell to southern export companies at about 5,000 yuan per ton. Southern companies earn the margin, and by the time goods reach African dealers, the price is about 7,000 to 8,000 yuan per ton.

Export categories change with fashion trends. "In the first half, patterned T-shirts sell well; in the second half, solid-color T-shirts may sell better." The remaining half that cannot be exported is sold to other collection points at about 0.1 yuan per jin for reuse: pure white clothing is made into cotton yarn, down from down jackets is disinfected and reused, and dark pure cotton fabrics are made into non-woven fabrics, greenhouse insulation quilts, roadbed cloth, highway protective materials, fillers, car soundproof cotton, and even mops.

Industry Outlook: A Hundred-Billion Market Is Taking Shape

According to incomplete statistics, with an average garment lifespan of 3 to 4 years and each person discarding 3 to 5 items per year, China's 1.3 billion population generates 4 to 6.5 billion used garments annually. At the collection price of 0.5 yuan per kilogram from a recycling machine in a Qingdao community, the direct recycling value of discarded clothes in 2021 alone reached 40 billion yuan. Adding past stockpiles and the industrial chain, a hundred-billion-scale market has begun to take shape.

Data from the China Association of Circular Economy shows that the used clothing recycling rate is increasing year by year, and the industry has formed a rationally laid-out system with clear division of labor. Nearly 30% of used clothes are exported to Africa and Southeast Asia, while 70% are recycled domestically. Several professional recycling centers have formed in China, such as Yishui and Weifang in Shandong, which recycle black and white cloth for reuse, and Puyang in Henan, which specializes in buying down jackets to process down quilts and other products.

In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, used clothes from Europe, America, Japan, and South Korea were deemed unsafe by African wholesalers, and orders quickly shifted to China, bringing explosive growth to China's used clothing industry. Used clothing recycling not only drives大量 employment but also boosts specific industries in parts of Africa and Southeast Asia.

In terms of industry significance, used clothing recycling is both an environmental industry and a commercial blue ocean. From Qingdao collection points to southern ports and then to African street stalls, a cross-border used clothing supply chain has been established. The efficiency of connecting domestic sorting capacity with export channels will determine whether practitioners can share in the dividends of this hundred-billion market.

Source: The global "journey" of a used garment! Used clothing recycling rises in Qingdao, half exported overseas · Originally published on 2022-01-19