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

[PippaXo]

My charity shop used to accept clothes not good enough to wear anymore as they could put them for recycling to be made into rags. I understand that they used to generate a small amount of money from this.

They have now stopped accepting clothes for recycling to make rags.
I was just wondering why? What has changed?

The amount they get is so low now that its not worth it for them any more

Why is that though? What has changed that the amount they make from rags has got lower?

Perhaps because nowadays, with cheap clothing made from polyester etc. rather than natural fibres, the rags cannot be easily reprocessed and end up as landfill and the charity wouldn't want to be associated with that?

The bottom has fallen out of the rag market. I recall it's oversupply and cost of shipping.

Nobody will buy them.

My guess would be that charges associated with waste have gone up and that they too often get dirty or otherwise unusable rags that they have to treat as waste.

This was on the news last week. The price of rags has dropped substantially. There is a surplus in the system due to fast fashion, poor quality and over production. They lose money which for charities is not what they need. It's really not that hard to understand. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd0nr11myd1o

Mine does. I gave them a bag of moth eaten jumpers on Monday.

I’ve never heard of this before!

Surely your best bet is to ask them?!

Supply and demand. Donations these days involve more substandard clothes, there is no shortage of rag items, and there is a cost for processing and disposal/recycling. It might be the shop is having to pay rather than getting 25p a kilo or whatever, they may have a few tons a week.

They probably have enough waste from sorting donations anyway rather than taking in extra waste. There are plenty of textile recycling banks.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Thank you all. Your replies are insightful.

This makes a lot of sense. Many thanks for the information.

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.

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.

I know what you mean!

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.

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.

Yes, agreed.

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

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.