Textile Waste: Why Old Clothes Shouldn’t Go in the Bin
Throwing an old jumper in the bin feels like the end of it. It isn’t. Clothing thrown away is lost for good, along with everything it took to make. Here is what happens to clothes that are thrown away, and how donating them stops it.
The scale of it
How much clothing the UK throws away
A parliamentary inquiry estimated that around 300,000 tonnes of textiles end up in UK household bins every year. Roughly 80% of that is burned and the rest goes to landfill. (House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, Fixing Fashion, 2019.)
Worldwide, the picture is starker: the equivalent of one rubbish lorry full of textiles is landfilled or burned every second. (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, A New Textiles Economy, 2017.)
Out of sight
What happens to clothes in landfill
Clothes don’t simply disappear once they are buried.
Natural fibres rot slowly
Cotton, wool and linen break down without air in a landfill site, and as they do they give off methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
Synthetics barely break down
Polyester, nylon and acrylic are plastics made from oil, and most clothes now contain at least some of them. In landfill they can last a very long time.
Dyes and finishes go too
The chemicals used to colour and treat fabric go into the ground with it.
Burned
What happens to clothes that are burned
Most of the UK’s binned clothing is incinerated, often to make electricity. That is better than landfill, but it still releases carbon, and it destroys a perfectly useful item in a single moment.
Hidden cost
The waste you can’t see
The biggest loss is everything that went into making the clothes. Growing cotton takes a great deal of water: around 2,700 litres for a single cotton t-shirt, according to WWF. When a wearable piece of clothing is thrown away, all of that goes with it, and something new has to be made to replace it.
The answer
How donating stops it
Keep clothes in use for as long as possible. Every bag that goes into a collection van instead of the bin is clothing that will be worn again, and nothing to burn or bury.
Donate the clothes that can be worn again
Book a free charity clothes collection and we take them from your doorstep. Most of what we collect is worn again.
Recycle the clothes that can’t
Worn-out, torn or stained clothes go in a council textile bank or to your local recycling centre, not the bin.
Bin nothing that could be reused
Not sure which pile something belongs in? Check what clothes can I donate?
Reuse comes first because it saves the most. Why, and by how much, is on how donating clothes helps the planet.
Every day
Small changes that add up
- Buy fewer, better clothes, and look after them so they last.
- Mend a seam or replace a button before giving up on something.
- Buy second-hand when you can.
- Pass on what you no longer wear, while it’s still in good condition.
For more on the wider problem, read the true cost of fast fashion and fast fashion solutions.
Sources
- House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, Fixing Fashion: clothing consumption and sustainability (2019).
- Ellen MacArthur Foundation, A New Textiles Economy: Redesigning fashion’s future (2017).
- WWF, The impact of a cotton t-shirt (2013).
Ready to donate your clothes?
It’s free, you don’t need to be at home, and you choose the charity your donation supports.