AIBU to ask why charity shops no longer accept "Rags"?

The charity shop I volunteer in ( small independent) can’t get the “rags “ collected along with other recycling. It’s not cost effective for them I think & the ones covering this area prioritise the bigger shops / chains. But even then they have stopped collecting. Leaves us with the problem of where to store them etc

H&M take them and if you’re a H&M member, you’ll get a voucher to use on your next purchase

Do the on street textile bins actually want rags either? The only ones I've seen so clean, useable clothes only.

It doesn’t really matter why. They told you they aren’t accepting them.

Fire Fighters charity in the U.K. has donation boxes you gm can put clean items into that they sort and either sell for rags etc. Usually the smaller community stations that do it. They will have a big yellow Fire Fighters charity donation box that’s visible at the station if they are a location that does it.

All the textile clothing banks have been removed from our area as they were a haven for fly tips. The only place to take them here is the municipal tip. It always feels such a waste to throw them in the bin but there you are.

Last week our local hospice put a notice out saying that across the UK recycling centres are receiving more clothing than ever before but more of it is now unsuitable for reuse or recycling because of changing fashion trends and lower-quality materials.

Also, the price per kilo for recycled clothes has dropped dramatically - from around 60p to just 17p per kilo, making it harder for recyclers to recover costs. Recycling partners have now asked that only clean, wearable, resalable items are sent to them. They are now in a position where instead of receiving pennies for rags they may soon have to pay for disposal costs. They are looking for solutions so that it won't affect the income for the Hospice but I think it is going to be difficult.

I took a load of clothes to a cash for clothes place and they went through every single item and gave me back a lot of things deemed (I presume) unsaleable. I had to take those to the recycling bin.

I volunteer in a charity shop and our 'rag collector' only accepts clean undamaged clothes so we now have to put clothes that are torn, dirty or unsaleable into our rubbish bins. And we pay for our rubbish collection, so it costs us to dispose of unsaleable items.

I never knew they took rags, I thought that was for the bins on the streets or in supermarkets. Some of them don’t take coat hangers any more either. In fact they have their own, talk about snooty! Some of them are getting very fussy indeed.

I tend to send clothes to other places now - good quality children’s clothes I pass on to friends’ children or via clothes distribution schemes nearby that work with local families and schools; but things not in good condition just go to the clothes banks at the supermarket because it’s not worth charity shops selling them.

It's no longer worth it for them, the prices are too low for rags.

I think I read an article that said the cheapest clothing is now cheaper to make first time around with virgin materials, than it is to recycle it.

Salvation Army bins take everything and they will recycle what they can't sell.

There is something very off putting about charities inspecting people's offerings and announcing loudly in front of customers 'Oh, we can't accept that

People need to stop using charity shops as a way to get rid of rubbish guilt free.

Ask yourself - why are you donating the garment? Is it saleable? If you don't want it any more, why would someone else?

Of course sometimes people are passing on items that no longer fit, styles that don't suit them any longer etc.

But if you are trying to palm dated, stained, heavily worn items that no one will buy off your vinted account, you are just creating work for the charity to dispose of.

We all need to buy less. I live in a really affluent area and its very common for local people to self justify how much they buy and own by determinedly trying to avoid "throwing things away", but in reality just constantly trying to press various charities to accept unsaleable things as donations. All this does is pass on the burden of dealing with waste/recycling.

We all need to stop kidding ourselves about the amount of waste we generate. The market for a lot of things second hand is quite weak, we need to accept using the things we buy ourselves until they are more worn out rather than buying new every 3 years.

I was recently told by someone working for Oxfam that the price for textiles has dropped from about 65p per kg a few years ago to about 7p per kg now. Presumably charities still have to get rid of unsold clothes, even if they do not officially accept rags.
There is something very off putting about charities inspecting people's offerings and announcing loudly in front of customers 'Oh, we can't accept that'. I am not sure it is worth the bother any more.

Ours does too, and I think they’ll also pick up textiles if left separately bagged with the recycling bin. Makes more sense than charities being a middleman in the recycling process.

My council recycling centre/tip accepts clothing, shoes and textiles. That’s where I take them if they are not in a saleable condition.

I volunteer at a charity shop sometimes and we still accept but I think the consensus is it’s not worth the petrol. We bag it in unused builder bags ( not too full) then a volunteer and chum drives it to nearest city with a cash for clothes place. It used to generate 500 a year and also keeps waste costs down now it’s less and feels like more a chore. If we were paying to transport ( even just mileage) it wouldn’t make anything.

The charity shop I work in still accepts. The money we get for them has fell considerably though. Maybe ask around all the ones in your area, you might find one that still does.

They have limited staff time to sort the cloths & space to store the cloths, so want to use their resources on selling better quality cloths, as this will raise more money. The rag recycling company they sell to may also be paying less per kg, due to increases in their overheads (staff, power, rent, transporting goods).

There will also be supply & demand economics at play. For years people have been over buying low quality fast fashion, resulting in an increase in warn out cloths being discarded.

Fast fashion has resulted in less call for rag. Some rag used to be sold to developing countries, that market has drastically shrunk.

the cost involved in shipping has risen drastically. Storage costs and disposal costs have escalated.

More charities are being mindful of using an ethical operator rather than one that ships and dumps on another country.

there are fewer operators, which means charities have to store rag between collections. Storage costs awful lot.

and the cost of disposing of goods that can’t be sent for rag has sky rocketed. There is new refuse legislation coming into effect next week, resulting in more complex disposal requirements which all has to be paid for.

it costs an awful lot to run a charity shop nowadays and there are fewer opportunities to maximise income.