Valuing our clothes

 
Despite the severe recessions and increased awareness of recycling, we still have something of throwaway culture in the UK.  A classic example is the way we treat our clothes as fashion accessories rather than functional items.  Waste quango WRAP published an excellent study recently which is all part of their work with the clothing industry to help move them towards more sustainable business models. 

Their research showed that over a million tonnes of clothes are thrown out each year in the UK.  At a time when many households are struggling this seems insane because second hand clothes sell for decent money and even if these clothes are really worn out they still have value for the rag trade and thus we're missing out on a multimillion pound resource. 

By my calculations this means that across Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin we're getting through 7,000 tonnes a year!  Whilst it is great that most of this is being put to use (either by being donated to second hand shops, sold on e-bay, re-used through charity doorstep sack collection schemes or recycled via the council recycling centres) that leaves 2,000 tonnes of clothing which ends up just being binned and then rotting in local landfill sites.  

Such a waste as even worn and torn old textiles have a value of around £400 per tonne if recycled via the rag trade to make industrial cleaning rags and "shoddy" for cushion stuffing.  So we could be bringing around £800,000 into the local economy but instead we are paying for this material to be dumped.  A double whammy which means over £125,000 was sucked out of the pockets of local taxpayers (and thus out of Shropshires economy) last year just to cover the landfill tax payments alone for burying all this clothing!  When you factor in disposal costs as well it means a near one million pound prize is up for grabs if Shropshire residents could just be persuaded to recycle every last scrap.

The other shocking stat to come out of the report is that on average 30% of the clothing in our wardrobes has not been worn for a year. That's £200 million spent on clothing across the whole of Shropshire which arguably isn't needed at all.

By making the most of the unwanted clothes that currently sit in our wardrobes or go to landfill then businesses, charities and individuals could unlock a lucrative revenue stream and inject this back into the local economy.