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?

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.

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 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

I guess since online retailers just dump brand new returns in landfill overseas or 'sell on for recycling' (because it's cheaper than processing it back onto the shelves) then they will have already flooded what market there was.

This has been bought home in a big way here in Birmingham where the bin men are on strike. The amount of rubbish people produce is shocking. And I'm fed up of reporting fly tipping next to a textile recycling bin at the end of my road. At least once a week the recycling bin is surrounded by old broken furniture, duvets, children's toys - this week toys still in their boxes, builders waste and black sacks containing goodness knows what. One week amongst the general detritus there were boxes and boxes of half used packets of someone's prescription medication. People are not only wasteful but they're so dirty as well.

Presumably they already have enough hangers to keep their rails well stocked. So why would they want any more? As has been mentioned a number of times on this thread, it costs charity shops to dispose of unsellable items. They’re not being snooty, they’re simply trying to act as an income generator for their cause rather than a recycler for those who don’t want to use their own recycling bins for whatever reason.

Have you considered that the final sentence of your post was unnecessary?

OP didn't say it was hard to understand. She asked why, implying that she just didn't know.

So what should you do with clothes that are worn out or stained and can’t be resold? If charity shops understandably don’t want them, what are the alternatives? Do council tips want them as recycling or is that just passing the problem into them to solve? What does that leave - the rubbish bin?

It might not be a question of any interest to you, but you are not the thread police. Provided a thread is not judged to be offensive, anyone of us are free to post about issues that interest us.

A lot of what you put into clothes recycling banks (you'll find them in supermarket car parks) gets turned into rags.

I didn’t know they did this, and I’m not surprised they no longer do.

I send very good condition stuff to charity shop. Stuff that’s maybe not quite so good to the clothing bins. Things that are really not suitable for wearing anymore I cut up and shove under the sink to use as cleaning rags etc.

Rags dumped in developing countries creating acres of cast off clothing is the result. The quality of clothes means that many can’t be recycled and they are just dumped - the articles below are just a couple, about Ghana, and Chile, and there are countless other examples. It is horrifying over consumption.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/may/31/stop-dumping-your-cast-offs-on-us-ghanaian-clothes-traders-tell-eu

<a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.com/url?q=www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-12/fast-fashion-turning-parts-ghana-into-toxic-landfill/100358702" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.abc.net.au/article/100358702

www.google.com/amp/s/www.aljazeera.com/amp/gallery/2021/11/8/chiles-desert-dumping-ground-for-fast-fashion-leftovers

I just had the WORST experience at a charity shop recently, giving away really nice old children's clothes. Told by pair on the till that they don't accept them, when I have been donating for years and explicitly been told they do accept them. Told me this was never the case and that these items must have been overlooked before, made me take a load of stuff back and on my way out one of them said "sorry for the misjudgment on your end"...

I keep my clothes until worn out. I cut them up and use to clean things like fatty/oily plans etc. I also use to dry the cat litter tray. Then they go into the bin.
Our bin rubbish is burned, so I don’t feel guilty.
Clothes that I can afford don’t last that long.
I sell my worn once don’t like clothes I sell on Vinted.
Where are the quality clothes that people talk about, most things are bloody polyester.

Clarks accept shoes which are too grotty to sell and then they recycle them. They don't advertise this very much which is a pity.

Why is it "Snooty" to have their own hangers? Charity shops usually have their own so there is a uniform look in the shop. It amazes me that people think they are entitled to drop off whatever they please and if the charity dares to say "Thanks but no thanks" they are branded ungrateful etc. Would you rather the charity pays to dispose of your unwanted items then you get rid yourself?

Clothing that goes for "rags" isn't immediately shredded. The recycling company will detail sort and grade it into items suitable for export and then different types for recycling into insulation, wiping rags etc. just because a charity shop has rejected it as they know it won't sell, it may be suitable for another market. This doesn't take away from the fact too much crappy clothing is sent overseas (and comes from overseas in the first place).

i always use salvation army bins, i did carry round books in the back of my car recently and eventually donated to a charity shop but felt awkward doing so - out of touch