What Happens to Donated Bags After We Collect Them?
Once you’ve booked a free doorstep collection for bags and accessories and the van pulls away from your door, your bags start a new journey. We take them back to our warehouse, sort them by hand and pass on what can be used again. Here is what happens to donated bags after we collect them, stage by stage.
- Sorted by hand
- Most used again
- Proceeds to the charity you choose
The journey
From your doorstep to a new owner
Picked up from your doorstep
On your collection day, you leave your donations out by 7am. You don’t need to be in. The evening before, we email you an estimated arrival window and a link to follow the driver on the day.
Our driver picks up your bags along with everything else on the round. If you’re not sure how to get ready, the steps are on how do I donate my bags?
Back to our warehouse
Our drivers collect from homes all day, then bring everything back to our warehouse, where the day’s donations are unloaded together.
Nothing is sold straight off the van. Every donation goes through the same checks first. The packaging is put to use too: plastic bags are reused as protective packaging and cardboard boxes are recycled.
We have been building and refining this process since 2012 to cut out waste at every step.
Sorted by hand
Every donation is opened and every item is checked by hand. Our team looks at each handbag, rucksack and tote bag: the straps, the zips, the lining and the pockets. Then it goes in with others of its kind, so backpacks sit with backpacks, purses and clutch bags with purses, and belts, scarves, hats, jewellery and watches each have their own place.
If you packed other donations inside a bag you’re giving, that’s fine. It saves space and plastic, and we simply take them out and sort both.
Passed on to be used again
Once sorted, the bags and accessories that can be used again are passed on, so they can go to new owners. Most of the bags we collect are carried again, often by people who couldn’t afford one brand new.
A good backpack can do years more school runs. A handbag you’ve stopped using can become someone’s everyday favourite. More on the people your bags help is on who do my bags help?
The bags that can’t be used again
Because we ask for bags and accessories in good condition, free from damage, holes or stains, most of what we collect goes on to be used again. Anything that can’t be is separated out at the sorting stage.
That is why the list of what bags and accessories we can and can’t take matters: the more of each donation that can be used again, the more it raises. Suitcases are one thing we can’t collect, so please keep those back.
The money goes to charity
Selling what can be used again pays for the collection, the sorting and the transport, and a large percentage of the proceeds goes to the charity you chose when you booked.
Why this journey matters. Every bag used again is a bag that didn’t need to be made new, and didn’t end up in a bin. We explain what that saves on how donating bags helps the planet, and what is lost when a bag is thrown away on why old bags shouldn’t go in the bin.
Anglo Recycling, the company behind Anglo Doorstep Collections, was named Best Clothes Recycling Enterprise 2023 in the Southern Enterprise Awards.
The bigger picture
What it all means for the environment
We want bags and accessories used again for what they were made for. The one you no longer carry doesn’t need to go in the bin: it can have a new owner.
Too much in the bin
WRAP found that 49% of all used textiles in the UK were put in the rubbish bin rather than reused or recycled in 2021. That year, 711,000 tonnes went into household bins and general waste, according to WRAP.
Less made new
We estimate that every kilo of bags and accessories reused instead of made new saves around 3 kg of CO2e and 2,500 litres of water.
See your own difference
Want a rough idea of what your clear-out could save? Try our green calculator.
You can put your old handbags, rucksacks, purses and accessories back into use: book a free doorstep collection and choose the charity your donation supports. To clear out more at the same time, see everything we collect.
Sources: WRAP, Textiles Market Situation Report (2024) and its press release (2021 figures). The CO2e and water savings are our own estimate.
Ready to donate your bags and accessories?
It’s free, you don’t need to be at home, and you choose the charity your donation supports.