Second-hand clothing recycling bins have become a common sight in residential communities, yet the operators behind them, where the clothes go, and who regulates them have long remained unclear. Reporters visiting Zhejiang, Beijing, Gansu, Shanghai and other places found that the line between charitable and commercial recycling is blurred, with some commercial bins falsely using charitable names; after collection, the clothes are sorted and either donated, processed into insulation quilts or recycled yarn, or flow to second-hand clothing trading companies in the south, but due to the lack of traceability, some old clothes are packaged as "big-brand surplus stock" and sold in livestreaming rooms. Industry experts call for establishing a cross-departmental coordinated governance mechanism and mandatory disinfection and testing standards, and improving whole-chain traceability.

Key Points

  • Recycling bins mix charitable and commercial nature: Lanzhou has about 1,000 charity bins filed with the civil affairs authorities, but also commercial bins that do not indicate where the clothes go; in Jiaxing, there were cases where a charity project had already ended but the bins were still collecting clothes. Wei
  • Sorted old clothes have diverse destinations: those in good condition are disinfected and donated, dark-colored clothes are processed into insulation quilts for vegetable greenhouses, light-colored cotton clothes are shipped out to be made into recycled yarn, and some high-quality garments are sold to second-hand clothing trading companies in the south.
  • Regulatory basis lags behind: the current basis is still the 2007 Measures for the Administration of Renewable Resource Recycling, with no special provisions on second-hand clothing recycling qualifications, sorting, disinfection, or traceability; there is no "second-hand clothing recycling" subcategory in enterprise registration.

The "identity" of recycling bins varies by city

In Yuecheng District, Shaoxing, Zhejiang, resident Mr. Chen put about 15 kilograms of old clothes into a smart recycling bin guided by the government and operated by a company, with scanning, dropping off and weighing all automated. In a residential community in Xinjian Village, Tongzhou, Beijing, a "Dangdang Yixia Smart Recycling Bin" is labeled "paid recycling, low-carbon and environmentally friendly," with an old clothing recycling price of 0.5 yuan/kg, and the mini-program shows destinations such as environmental recycling and insulation materials. A recycling bin in a community in Fengtai District is only labeled for waste sorting and recycling, without clarifying the final use; the property management said it was placed uniformly by the subdistrict, and clothes, books, bedding, shoes and bags can all be deposited.

Lanzhou is even more typical: in residential communities there are both commercial bins labeled "environmental recycling" and charity bins printed with "Lanzhou Charity Public Welfare Bin" and "China Charity Federation One Sheet of Paper Love Action." According to the Lanzhou Civil Affairs Bureau, charity bins must be set up and filed by charitable organizations with public fundraising qualifications and are regulated by civil affairs departments under the Charity Law; commercial bins are the responsibility of operating companies, must indicate the operator's information, and the property management or community must review qualifications.

But in reality the two are not always clearly distinct. A small number of companies or individuals package commercial recycling as charitable donations, and even falsely use the name of civil affairs departments or charitable organizations. Mr. Liu, a resident of Jiaxing, found that a recycling bin in his community claiming to be charitable corresponded to a project that had long ended, yet the bin was still "receiving" clothes; after being reported, it was removed by the local government.

The real flow in the sorting workshop

At an old clothing sorting workshop in Heping Town, Yuzhong County, Lanzhou, person in charge Xie Yanpo introduced that they have filed with the civil affairs department and signed a cooperation agreement with the Lanzhou Charity Federation, setting up about 1,000 recycling bins in Lanzhou and other places. After sorting: items in relatively good condition are disinfected at partner dry cleaners for charitable donation; dark-colored clothes are sent to downstream factories to be processed into insulation quilts for vegetable greenhouses; light-colored cotton clothes are shipped to other provinces to be made into recycled yarn for products such as labor protection gloves; and some high-quality garments are sold to second-hand clothing trading companies in the south.

There are also practical examples of circular economy at the end. Zhao Yunlong, person in charge of Meishuda Packaging Materials Factory in Yuzhong County, said that defective old clothes, after removal of impurities, high-temperature disinfection and crushing, are made into flocculent filling material to produce insulation quilts for vegetable greenhouses in alpine regions, with low cost and still recyclable and reprocessable after several years of damage. In Zhejiang, Intime Department Store cooperated with the recycling platform "Baijingyu" to pilot old item recycling in some stores; after sorting, part is recycled into materials such as soundproof cotton, and another part is donated in a targeted way or exported.

Affected by blind spots in whole-chain regulation and lagging traceability, a gray industry chain has emerged. Unqualified commercial recycling companies have poured in, and there are loopholes in every link from recycling and sorting to circulation, ultimately flowing to livestreaming consumers under the names of "big-brand surplus stock" or "slightly flawed and slightly dirty" with no-return, no-exchange terms.

Governance challenges under multi-department management

Old clothing recycling involves bin placement (housing and urban-rural development, civil affairs, subdistricts), recycling behavior (commerce, civil affairs), resource utilization (development and reform, industry and information technology), final disposal (ecology and environment, housing and urban-rural development), and enterprise registration and market behavior (market regulation), with scattered responsibilities. Gansu Provincial Administration for Market Regulation revealed that enterprise registration access only has broad categories such as "renewable resource recycling" and "productive scrap metal recycling," with no subcategory for old clothing recycling, making it difficult to accurately grasp the companies involved and their operating status. A relevant person in charge of the Gansu Provincial Department of Commerce said that the current basis for promoting the construction of the renewable resource recycling system is still the 2007 Measures for the Administration of Renewable Resource Recycling issued by the Ministry of Commerce and other departments; although old clothing is included in the broad category of renewable resources, special provisions on qualifications, sorting, disinfection and traceability are blank.

Liu Hongshuang, director of the Charity Affairs Promotion Division of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Civil Affairs, said that management of charitable old clothing recycling will be strengthened, charitable organizations will be urged to fulfill their main responsibilities, donation procedures will be improved, and information on where clothes go will be disclosed in a timely and complete manner.

Experts have also proposed systematic solutions. Zhang Jingru, associate researcher at the School of International and Public Affairs of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, emphasized the need to strengthen top-level design, establish a cross-departmental coordinated governance mechanism, promote the formulation of key standards for old clothing classification, disinfection and utilization, and use artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things to build whole-chain traceability. Shi Baoguo, vice dean of the School of Economics at Minzu University of China, advocated internalizing social costs such as health risks in old clothing circulation through institutional design, establishing mandatory disinfection and testing standards, reconstructing the responsibility chain, strengthening the joint liability of e-commerce platforms and old clothing operators, and guiding the standardized development of the industry with fiscal and tax incentives.

For the old clothing export and trade links, once domestic sorting standards and a traceability system are established, they will directly affect the compliance of supply sources and the quality threshold for exports; and for companies engaged in old clothing sorting, recycling processing and trade, filling the gaps in qualification registration and process supervision is already imperative.

Source: Where do recycled old clothes go · Originally published on 2026-01-29