The charity retail sector has had a setback during lockdown, but it continues to offer a robust reuse and recycling route for textiles, says the sustainability manager at the British Heart Foundation, David Roman.
It’s been a rocky few months for retailers, not least charity retailers. When our shops lose money, it can mean essential projects and services are at risk, aside from the immediate impact on those who work, volunteer and shop with us.
The good news is that, in summer, our stores reopened on nearly every high street; we’ve adapted and turned a tide of lockdown clear-outs into funding for public benefit. There are still challenges, and we aren’t running at the same capacity as we were eight months ago, but this is far from ‘the end of textile recycling’, as the article in September’s Circular implied.
This complex value chain is misunderstood and can get a bad press. One criticism is the risk of illegally exporting waste.
Textile recycling is a misleading term. The process is demand-driven, financed by the resale value of usable goods to UK customers and textile – ‘rag’ – merchant supply chains.
‘Rag’ is another unhelpful term. This is anything a particular charity shop is unlikely to sell on their high street, so the best chance of reuse is somewhere else – Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East.
A textile merchant can generate 200 or so product lines for export, as well as wiper and flocking grades for recycling, and a small fraction of waste. Typically, 90 per cent of donated textiles are reused, five per cent recycled and five per cent disposed of.
This complex value chain is misunderstood and can get a bad press. One criticism is the risk of illegally exporting waste. Although waste is a by-product, the trade in used clothing is not a dumping exercise and ethical merchants take their duty of care seriously.
A group – led by charity retailers and supported by the Textile Recycling Association, CIWM, Wrap and others – has gone further, reviewing health and safety, employment practices, and sound business and environmental management. This has resulted in Trust, a new ethical standard for the sector that will be rolled out in 2021.
Lockdown
During global lockdowns and restrictions, shops and most clothing banks in the UK closed, shipments were cancelled or held at ports, and – with markets not trading – textile supply slowed to a trickle.
When charity shops reopened, many volunteers and staff couldn’t return straightaway. Those who did had to completely rearrange the workspace to be Covid-safe, creating quarantine areas for incoming stock and more space for sorting and for shoppers. All of this slowed down the process and reduced capacity at a time of unprecedented supply of donated goods.
There’s been a strong recovery, but the charity retail sector and the export trade are still only at around 80-90 per cent capacity. Unfortunately, this means donation banks are still low priority, and many remain closed, and it can even mean some shops having to refuse donations when they run out of space. Prices are also lower for exported goods, although not as low as many feared.
As we face a potential economic downturn, there is likely to be more demand for low-priced clothing and household essentials, driven by need, as well as by those who choose to reuse for ethical reasons.
While charities count the cost of an exceptionally bad year for retail and a devastating impact on income, there’s been rapid adaptation. A lot of younger volunteers have been welcomed to shops and, as with the rest of retail, online trading has become more important. For instance, the British Heart Foundation has partnered with fashion marketplace app Depop to reach a new audience of sustainable fashion lovers and has become a top seller on the platform.
As we face a potential economic downturn, there is likely to be more demand for low-priced clothing and household essentials, driven by need, as well as by those who choose to reuse for ethical reasons.
In challenging market conditions, charity retailers continue to do what they do best – providing affordable goods, a variety of jobs and volunteering opportunities with a positive impact on mental health, as well as contributing to the circular economy and capturing hundreds of thousands of tonnes of what could become household waste.
The sector has had a setback, but it is healthy, it is needed and it continues to provide a robust ethical reuse and recycling route for textiles, plus a lot more besides.
This article first featured in the Nov/Dec 2020 issue of Circular.
