Why Recycle

Space in landfill sites is running out. Landfill is also costly and throwing wearable clothing away is wasteful, but not many people realise that it can also be harmful. This is because over time your old clothing made of natural materials like cotton, wool and leather will biodegrade in the airless conditions of the landfill site to form methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.

Recycling clothes is just as important as recycling any other material.

• 90% of clothes purchased in the UK are imported*
• The UK buys 2,066,000 tonnes of clothes* (estimated worth over £34,000,000,000) each year
• 52% or 1,081,000 tonnes is thrown away in landfill*
• UK rubbish bins are filled with over 1 million tonnes of textiles every year
• The UK public buys 2,066,000 tonnes of new clothes each year but only 498,000 is recycled – that’s just 24%
• On average, each UK resident buys around £600 of clothes each year and discards £300 worth
• It takes 800 litres of water to make just one t-shirt, so recycling and reusing clothes is an excellent solution for the environment
• Production of a tonne of clothes takes 10 times more energy than that of steel or glass*
• 24% of the world’s pesticides are used in cotton production
• If everyone in the UK bought one reclaimed woollen garment each year, it would save an average of 371 million gallons of water
• C02 savings from textile recycling is second only to aluminum – reusing clothes conveys a greater benefit to the environment

Still not convinced about recycling your clothes? Salvation Army Trading Company Ltd gift aids profits from its recycling scheme to help The Salvation Army to support its social welfare projects throughout the UK. This includes a network of 57 homeless shelters, programmes that support children, young people and families, residential centres for older people, a family tracing service, and help for those suffering from addictions.

* Sources: Defra’s report reference WRT152 September 2006 and Defra's Maximising Reuse and Recycling of UK Clothing and Textiles’ study 2009

For further information visit: www.defra.gov.uk/environment/business/products/roadmaps/clothing.htm