The practice of clothes recycling is probably as old as spinning and weaving, but it was 1813 when Benjamin Law introduced the first large scale yarn recycling industry. This was mainly based in towns of West Yorkshire and consisted of recovering wool from rags in order to make ‘new’ clothes. This form of clothes recycling tended to produce reusable materials in dull colours which were then often used to make uniforms.
Today there are still a number of ‘rag pulling’ companies in the UK..... but nowadays clothes recycling often involves passing the clothes onto charities for resale in the UK or use in third world countries. In the UK approximately 118,000 tonnes of textile waste are recycled from households every year and this is then sorted for recycling.
Most clothes placed in clothing banks are either sold in charity shops in this country or sent to third world countries or those experiencing situations resulting in extreme poverty. Clothes which can not be reused will either go for fibre reclamation to be made into new clothes or other textiles, or will be used for wiping cloths by various industries. There will be a small proportion which are unusable and are actual waste.
There are in fact a number of ways you can undertake clothes recycling. Clothes banks are usually situated at your local waste centre or other recycling locations. Alternatively give your second hand clothes to your local charity shop or jumble sale. Many charities also now do door to door collections making it even easier and providing an incentive for that much-needed clear out!
The government has a Sustainable Clothing Action Plan which sets out actions to improve the sustainability of clothing. For more information visit the DEFRA website.
For more information on clothes recycling visit www.wasteonline.org.uk
Source: www.defra.gov.uk and www.wasteonline.org.uk 2011
For further information on Recycling click on the links below
