Textile collections

Textile recycling collections

How?

• Please present textiles in a carrier bag. Please do not use black bin bags or charity bags as leaglly we cannot take them.
• Please leave textiles next to your red boxes along with the blue bag(s) as the crew who empty the boxes and blue bag will collect the textiles.
• Unfortunately we cannot accept wet textiles, duvets or pillows.

Where does it go? 

Once we have collected your old clothes and shoes, we sell them to a textile reprocessing company called SOEX. This company ships the material to their recycling facility in Wolfen, Germany.

It is then cleaned and sorted into different grades, ready to be sold on or turned into new products such as new shoe parts, judo mats and insulation in car seats and buildings. Even the dust generated when processing textiles is compacted into briquettes which are used in the manufacture of paper and concrete.

Any re-wearable shoes are sent all over the world to be worn again, mainly to Africa, but also to Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

SOEX ensures they only sell exactly what is required by their customers to ensure the process is sustainable, and nothing ends up in landfill. 1% of collected shoes and clothing which is not suitable for reuse or reprocessing is sent for incineration.