Expecting charity shops to recycle your unwanted clothes is creating a rubbish pile – here’s how to help to avoid that

Charity shops are generally seen as a responsible way to get rid of unwanted belongings. In theory, donating items allows them to be reused and raises money for important causes. However, many charity shops struggle to make use of the donations they receive.

The UK has more charity shops per person than any other country, handling hundreds of thousands of tonnes of used clothing every year in addition to a wide range of other household items.

When goods are donated to charity shops, they are either sold to local customers to be reused or purchased by commercial companies and traded through complex international markets.

An estimated 70-90% of donated goods follow these routes, with local traders reusing and recycling as much as possible. However, large quantities are also dumped and burned, resulting in environmental damage and waste.

My ongoing research shows the challenges charity shops face in reusing donated goods. Charity shops are the primary outlet for used textiles in the UK: roughly half of all textiles currently collected for reuse and recycling are charity shop donations. This role already puts them under significant pressure, and is likely to become more challenging if rates of production and disposal increase.

My research found that many charity retail staff are very focused on fundraising. Shops have strict financial targets to ensure they are supporting the charitable cause. As one charity retail senior manager put it: “That’s why you exist.”

Charity trustees have a legal duty to act in the best interests of their charity and to manage its resources responsibly, so shops which aren’t profitable can end up being closed.

This can be problematic for the reuse of low-value goods, which offer a limited return on staff labour time and shop floor space. In the words of another interviewee for my research: “We can’t stick everything out with a penny on it, that’s not how it works. We have to prioritise what we’re going to see the biggest return on.”

This issue is intensified by the overwhelming volume of discarded goods. Charity shops in the UK receive an estimated 350,000 tonnes of used clothing every year, in addition to a wide range of other household items, the quantities of which are not well documented.

Sorting and preparing donated goods for sale is time-consuming and labour-intensive. In one shop, a senior manager at a national charity retailer told me: “They get that many donations, and they’re that understaffed – they don’t have the time or the space, so it’s easier and better to just put it in the bin.”

As a result of these challenges, donated goods which are potentially reusable (as well as those which are too worn out for sale) may be landfilled, incinerated or recycled into low-value applications such as mattress stuffing.

This problem is linked to levels of consumption in the UK and other high-income countries. The average number of garments purchased per person globally increased by roughly 60% between 2000 and 2014, with each item being kept for half as long. In 2022, UK shoppers bought 1.42 million tonnes of new textile products, and this figure could reach 2.37 million tonnes by 2030. Much of this clothing is low quality, with little potential for reuse.

International markets for used goods are increasingly over-saturated, and are also vulnerable to geopolitical unrest, so are increasingly constrained in what they will take.

What you can do to help

1) Make sure your donations are clean and in working order. Overstretched charity shop staff may not have time to sew a new button onto a shirt or even clean a piece of crockery. If something you want to get rid of is broken and you don’t know how to mend it, take it to your local repair cafe first.

2) Try to donate seasonally appropriate goods. If you bring jumpers in June, the charity shop has to find somewhere to store them until September.

3) If you have a lot to donate, call your local charity shop first. Check if they have capacity to take it, and don’t be offended if they politely decline or ask you to come back another day.

4) Take items which can’t be reused, such as worn-out socks and stained teatowels, to a recycling point instead of a charity shop.

5) Find specialised outlets that will offer the best chance of an item being reused. For example, consider a baby bank for buggies and cots, or a scrap store for unwanted craft materials.

6) Get involved with groups in your local community who are working to tackle waste, or consider setting up your own.

Violet Broadhead received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council to complete her PhD research.