Textile Collection Guide
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TEXTILE COLLECTION GUIDE A guide for local authorities and textile collectors. Updated: April 2016 Home 1.0 2.0 Policy 3.0 Choosing 4.0 Kerbside 5.0 Bring 6.0 Community 7.0 Bulky 8.0 Promoting 9.0 Monitoring 10.0 Glossary 11.0 Further Understanding context the right & door-to-door banks re-use non-clothing textile re-use & evaluation information textile re-use methods collections textiles & recycling Guide WRAP – Textile Guidance – April 2016 WRAP’s vision is a world in which About SCAP This guidance has been developed by WRAP as part of its work on the Sustainable resources are used sustainably. Clothing Action Plan (SCAP). SCAP’s ambition is to improve the sustainability of clothing across its life cycle. By bringing together industry, government and the third sector SCAP aims to reduce resource use and secure recognition for corporate WRAP’s mission is to accelerate performance by developing sector-wide targets. the move to a sustainable, Acknowledgements We would like to thank the following people for their assistance in the course of this resource-efficient economy through: project: Alan Arrowsmith, JMP Wilcox; Cristina Osoro Cangas, Charity Retail Association; re-inventing how we design, Emma Cheesman, Cory Environmental Municipal Services Ltd; Maria Challenger, Torfaen County Borough Council; Ted Childs, Bag to School; Gemma Clinton, East produce and sell products. Dorset District Council and LARAC; Andrea Cornwell, London Borough (LB) of Bexley; Edward Cowley, Cambridgeshire County Council; Sarah Ellis, West London Waste Authority; Dean Evans, Joint Procurement Unit (Newport City Council); re-thinking how we use Phil Geller, I&G Cohen; Rachel Gray, WRAP; Jon Hastings, London Borough (LB) of Newham ; Andy Haws, ERC/SOEX; Lindsey Hill, Wastesavers Charitable Trust and consume products. Limited; James Kay, Resource Efficiency Wales; Joe Kingston, City of London Corporation; Kornelia Korzec, Cambridgeshire County Council; Michael Lomotey, Clothes Aid; John Matthews, London Borough (LB) of Bexley; Greg McMorris, re-defining what is possible Nathans Wastesavers Ltd; John Miley, Broxtowe Borough Council and NALEO; Roger Mills, Torfaen County Borough Council; Paul Ozanne, Salvation Army Trading Company; Dimitra Rappou, North London Waste Authority; Sally Sheward, Staffordshire County Council and LARAC; Lyndsey Stewart, Newport City Council; Helen Taylor, Cambridgeshire County Council; Jason Taylor CHAD Containers; Paul Terry, Southend-on-Sea Borough Council; Miranda Valenzuela, Southend-on-Sea Borough Council; Mike Webster, TRAID; West Midlands Waste and Recycling Forum; Penny Williams, Wastesavers Charitable Trust Limited; Alan Wheeler, Textiles Recycling Association; Andy Wilkinson Conwy County Borough Council, Rob Cole Suffolk Waste Partnership. Home 1.0 2.0 Policy 3.0 Choosing 4.0 Kerbside 5.0 Bring 6.0 Community 7.0 Bulky 8.0 Promoting 9.0 Monitoring 10.0 Glossary 11.0 Further Understanding context the right & door-to-door banks re-use non-clothing textile re-use & evaluation information textile re-use methods collections textiles & recycling Guide page 2 WRAP – Textile Guidance – April 2016 ABOUT THIS GUIDANCE This document is designed to help local authorities (LA) and textiles collectors such It is not intended to be prescriptive but is a guide to the issues to consider and the as charities, waste management companies and textile merchants increase textile options available individually or as a partnership in relation to the collection of re-use and recycling and reduce the amount of textiles being disposed of in residual textiles for re-use. waste. It provides practical guidance and examples of existing good practice for three key routes: This guide is designed such that readers can go straight to the sections of interest. Appropriate cross-referencing of sections is provided throughout the document. It kerbside textile collection services; has been designed to be read online but is also suitable for printing. bring banks; and community re-use initiatives. Key terms used in the guidance It gives guidance on how to communicate textile re-use and recycling services to the Textiles – in the context of this guidance, the term “textiles” includes not only public. clothing and shoes, but also bedding and curtains (though not carpets and mattresses). It can be used to help put in place new arrangements, review the existing approach, Bulky Non-Clothing Textiles – carpets, mattresses, pillows and duvets. or further develop and promote existing services. The guidance covers how to select Although these are not the focus of this guide, see Section 7 for a summary the right mix of services, how to commission services and, how to work with partners of our findings to date. and stakeholders, such as charities and community groups. Re-use – textile re-use is when textiles are sold or passed on as second-hand clothing, whether in the UK or overseas. For simplicity and because many services collect items for both re-use and recycling Recycling – recycling is where certain grades and types of textiles are the term re-use is used where both re-use and recycling occur. pulled and converted into other materials, such as felts, by specialist textile reprocessors. The guide is produced by WRAP as part of its work on the UK’s Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP), and covers England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It has been developed in close collaboration with the SCAP Re-use and Recycling Task Group. Although the main focus of this guide is household textiles it does include a section on bulky non-clothing textiles such as carpets, mattresses, pillows and duvets. Bulky non-clothing textiles can also be collected for re-use and recycling. For further information see Section 7.0 Bulky non-clothing textiles Home 1.0 2.0 Policy 3.0 Choosing 4.0 Kerbside 5.0 Bring 6.0 Community 7.0 Bulky 8.0 Promoting 9.0 Monitoring 10.0 Glossary 11.0 Further Understanding context the right & door-to-door banks re-use non-clothing textile re-use & evaluation information textile re-use methods collections textiles & recycling Guide page 3 WRAP – Textile Guidance – April 2016 1.0 UNDERSTANDING TEXTILE RE-USE AND RECYCLING provide employment and volunteering opportunities – there is a net employment Overview benefit in the UK of dealing with all clothing that reaches the end of its life3, as well as a significant boost to volunteering: on average, each charity shop has This section provides an overview of what textile re-use is and why it matters. over 20 volunteers (over 180,000 for the sector as a whole)4. It summarises the main routes to re-use and their respective benefits and considerations, and explains how textiles can be re-used. Given these benefits, it’s no surprise that textiles are becoming a key target material. Textile re-use: the benefits to local authorities 1.1 Textile re-use and why it matters By increasing the amount of textiles that are re-used, local authorities can: Every year, just under one million tonnes of all types of textiles goes to landfill. reduce their waste disposal costs; generate income; However, there are a number of opportunities to reduce this amount and a number support local charities or community groups; and of potential benefits in doing so. Increasing textile re-use can: create employment opportunities. significantly reduce carbon emissions from clothing manufacture – the carbon impact of re-used items of clothing such as T-shirts and jumpers is far lower than new equivalents1; cut the amount of landfill tax and other waste management and disposal costs local authorities have to pay – An estimated £140 million (350,000 tonnnes) worth of used clothes goes to landfill in the UK every year. 135,200 tonnes of textiles were collected in 2011/12 by local authorities for re-use and recycling which equates to just over £7.5 million of landfill tax avoided (at £56/tonne)2; generate revenues – each T-shirt/jumper re-used can yield over £1 net revenue to re-use organisations (e.g. charities) and/or to government (discounting wider costs or losses to householders, offices or businesses); and help households save money – if more items are available for re-use, people will have greater choice so can avoid purchasing (more expensive) new items; 1 WRAP, Textile Flows and Market Opportunities (2012) 3 WRAP, Benefits of Re-use Case Study: Clothing (2011) 2 WRAP, Valuing our Clothes (2012) 4 Key facts about charity shops, Charity Retail Association 2011 1.0 Home Understanding textile re-use 2.0 Policy 3.0 Choosing 4.0 Kerbside 5.0 Bring 6.0 Community 7.0 Bulky 8.0 Promoting 9.0 Monitoring 10.0 Glossary 11.0 Further context the right & door-to-door banks re-use non-clothing textile re-use & evaluation information methods collections textiles & recycling Guide page 4 WRAP – Textile Guidance – April 2016 1.2 What options are there for collecting and donating textiles? There are essentially three main routes: 1. Kerbside collection services – where households are asked to gather textiles for re-use, and leave them for collection at the kerbside. These services can be run either by a local authority – as part of their overall kerbside recycling service – or by charities or commercial collectors. 2. Bring banks –often in public spaces such as car parks of village halls or community centres, or household waste recycling centres (HWRC). These can be provided either by the local authority itself, charity or community organisations or commercial collectors. 3. Community re-use initiatives – this covers a wide range