Disposing of old clothes

[BlueRaincoat1]

How do you dispose of old clothes that aren't good enough for the charity shop/ charity bags/ charity bins etc? They all ask for clean good condition clothes, but what do you do with eg old school uniform that's worn out, old pants, old tshirts etc, worn out kids clothes? They aren't fit to be worn again. Even the clothing recycling at the tip now is for wearable clothes. Is it just in the black bin now?
Thanks

1. cotton, including tshirts, shirts, sheets and old socks are turned into dusters and cleaning clothes (rewashed unless used for something grotty).
2. Old tshirts etc used for painting/gardening.
3. stuff that cannot be donated or reused I put in a rag bag and the council will collect with weekly collections (or take to the tip clothes bank in a bag marked ‘rags’).
4. 100% Natural fibres can be composted.
5. I also do mending of things or dying faded/stained items to prolog life so not a lot of things fall into this category to begin with. Eg a pair of jeans with a knee hold got turned into cut off denim shorts and donated (wrong size). A faded dress got redyed.

Either bag them up and mark them as 'clean rags', and tell the charity shop worker what they are and do they want them. Some shops do sell unsellable stuff to 'rag merchants', who sell it on to be shredded as textile. Not all shops do this.

Or put in clothes bin marked the same. Some areper kilo anyway, so probably mostly for rags.

I have never put fabric in landfill.

What I can’t make into cloths goes into the Salvation Army collection bin in our local supermarket car park. They take all conditions, so what they can’t sell or use goes for rags and recycling. It saves me having to sort things and go to several locations to get rid of things, and I know it will all be reused in some way. I don’t have time to do anything more elaborate.

Thank you, maybe 'rag bag' is the way. Its not clothing that I think is good enough to expect anyone to pay for and I think there's a problem with shipping off bales of rubbish clothing to developing countries which is sometimes perpetuated by some of the clothing bin/ bag collectio

I think the problem is people were thinking they were doing the right thing in recycling clothes and a lot just ended up in landfill abroad creating a huge environmental disaster there.

I don’t think there is a simple answer to this. There are only so many rags a household can use.

Sorry posted too soon

Collections can add to. It does feel wring however just to bin it. There's too much to turn into dusters etc, especially kids clothes.

Our local Oxfam shop takes bags of rags which I label as such e.g. offcuts from making clothes, socks with holes in.

Do any of you have actual textile recycling as an option nearby? As opposed to clothing re-use? Because thats what I am hoping for!

I take mine to H&M in store. You drop off a bag of clothes in any condition from any brand. Anything that can't be reworn will be shredded back down into fibres and made into something else.

I donate old uniform to the PTA school uniform 'sale' which actually gives items away for free and I hand it down where possible. Some items that are worn are still useful for spares but wouldn't be good enough to sell in a charity shop, the same with worn school coats. Our school is very good and collects everything from Halloween costumes to Christmas jumpers to pass on and I think this is exactly what should be happening.

Things with holes/stains etc, I bag and mark as rags as previous posters do and put them in a charity collection bin in a car park near us.

Depends what it is. I sew so sometimes I've added some fun patches to holey garments and then passed them on. Items that are made of decent fabric eg cotton shirts, good quality childrens clothes, you can cut the good bits out and offer on FB/freecycle to people who craft/do patchwork etc. A friend of mine has made a reasonable amount selling this sort of thing in "slow stitch" craft kits on ebay.

The rest of the stuff gets bagged up and put in one of the street side fabric recycling bins which say they will take anything.

My ex mother in law used to work in a Sue Ryder shop and any donated clothing not suitable to sell was put in bags and collected by a rag bloke who paid per bag.

Charity shops can often take them. If you tell them that's what it is they'll be really pleased as it saves their time sorting them! The rag man collects them from us for textile recycling and pays per kilo. Our shop is able to recycle bags and shoes this way too.

We do but it's only for re-wearable clothes or paired shoes. Hence taking the rags to Oxfam. We just try to grab a carrier bag through when we're heading that way.

I do. It's a sort of booth with hopper, in a retail park's carpark. They pay by kilo, but there is the option to donate the money to the sally army.

I think the Sally Army may run a lot of the textile banks, even when they're not branded as such. Am sure I read it somewhere!

Like PP, I have way too many home rags, and decorating clothes already. The answer is really to buy less, and mend and make do which I'm also trying to do.

Also don't some of the 'charity' bags delivered for doorstep collection request any textiles? I'm not quite sure about those though!

I bag them up and take to H&M and get a £5 voucher. I don't really buy clothes for myself in H&M but usually use it for kids clothes or in their homeware shop.