- UK textile collectors and sorters PAY OUT £88 million every year to deal with our worn-out clothes*.
- Councils will have to choose between sending material to landfill or paying more for collections, with no other option than to increase council taxes.
- WRAP has identified three connected solutions to protect the sector and utilise worn-out textiles: advanced sorting and pre-processing facilities, a redesign of retailer take back schemes and EPR as a key enabler for circularity, with WRAP set to spearhead.
- Systemic change would also promote sustainable growth, create jobs and new export opportunities for the UK.
Today, global environmental action NGO, WRAP issues a stark warning: if the UK’s used textile sector goes under, charities, local authorities and consumers will have to pay the cost of dealing with unwanted used textiles.
WRAP predicts the cost of the sector collapsing would be an additional £64 million per year in costs of gate fees for local authorities for disposal of used textiles. This is further to the £73 million local authorities already pay for the textiles citizens currently put in the bin. The cost of collecting and sorting worn-out textiles in the UK is estimated at £88 million per year in the report released today. Charities will lose income, and existing collections and sorting will not be able to operate. Councils will have to choose between sending more material to landfill and incineration, or paying more for collections, with no other option to foot the bill than increasing council tax.
Without funding support, costs of up to £200 million per year by 2035 can be expected, should the burden fall on councils to collect and dispose of our unwanted clothes. The £64 million increase in costs would happen alongside an immediate impact to the environment with an increase of ~2.5 million tonnes CO2e per year due to the increase in landfill and incineration.
The cost for collectors and sorters to gather and process the UK’s worn-out textiles was previously balanced out by the money they made on reuseable items, but this is no longer the case – there are fewer reusable items that are desirable in global second-hand markets. Most businesses are currently operating at a loss and out of public service.
This is unsustainable, warns WRAP.
Catherine David, incoming CEO at WRAP said: “This is an existential threat to the collecting, sorting and grading sector that’s been in the UK for more than a hundred years.
The impact of this sector folding will be catastrophic. Generating and increasing the value of our worn-out clothing must be fast-tracked if the industry is to be salvaged. We have a vision to make that happen and future-proof this key part of the circular economy for textiles developed through ACT UK.”
WRAP has identified three solutions that together could help save the industry and ensure used clothing is not wasted: automatic sorting, Extended Producer Responsibility and a redesign of retailer take-back schemes.
Automatic-sorting for Circularity in Textiles project (ACT UK)
The ACT UK project involved 18 partners across the textile value chain. It aimed to establish a blueprint for innovative advanced sorting and pre-processing facilities in the UK to bridge the gap between worn-out textiles and an important step to unlocking textile recycling, to keep resources at a higher value and contributing to the economy.
Sorted textiles have a higher value because they will be fibre-sorted and pre-processed to recyclers’ specifications.
Public appetite to recycle worn-out clothing is high. During the ACT UK collection trials, up to 46% more textiles were collected by giving the public an opportunity to donate their worn-out textiles alongside textiles that could be reused by someone else.
Advanced sorting and pre-processing facilities would save worn-out items from being sent to landfill, incineration or overseas to destinations already overwhelmed and unequipped to deal with the scale of the Global North’s used textiles, instead creating feedstock for textile recycling.
By creating a network of fourteen 25,000 tonne capacity per year advanced sorting and pre-processing facilities in the UK, it is estimated that the cost for collecting and sorting worn out clothing would be reduced by around half by 2035.**
Cyndi Rhoades, Co-Founder and CEO, Circle-8 Textile Ecosystems, said: “Non-reusable textiles are not waste, they are resources. Through automated sorting and pre-processing for recycling, these resources will replace the use of virgin materials in textile production”
WRAP outlines how this advanced automated sorting plan will work for the UK in two reports launched as part of the ACT UK project:
- ACT UK - The Business Case for Advanced Textile Sorting and Pre-Processing Facilities
- ACT UK - Transitioning to a UK Circular Textiles Ecosystem Report
Eco-modulated Extended Producer Responsibility
Extended Producer Responsibility is a policy that is being developed in many regions around the world as a means to fund and support textile collections, sorting and recycling. Eco-modulated EPR is a more sophisticated policy that incentivises the design of sustainable and circular fashion.
Demand for EPR from all parts of the value chain is strong, but it is not only the policy lever of EPR that will be necessary. At the request of government, WRAP has developed a suite of policy recommendations and will be spearheading an industry-agreed EPR framework over the next year in collaboration with other NGOs.
To support industry demand for an EPR system, WRAP is working to support system design and eventual implementation. Building upon existing work on EPR system design by both WRAP and other sector stakeholders, over the next year WRAP will seek to plug the patchwork of EPR system design recommendations, ultimately helping the sector to take progressive steps towards the implementation of an impactful, informed, cost effective, and evidence-based EPR system.
Retailer take-back schemes
Based on learnings from the ACT UK project and its broader work under the UK Textiles Pact, WRAP is proposing a new collaborative approach to retailer take back, to maximise the power of the UK Textiles Pact retailer and brand signatories.
The Textile Collections System Transition Programme will partner with leading brands to co-design easier, more effective textile takeback schemes that work for consumers and the sector alike.
It aims to support the collecting and sorting industry, and ultimately ensures less textiles end up in residual waste.
WRAP is inviting brands and retailers to join it and its partners to accelerate this approach for the mutual benefit of the wider textile industry.
Notes to Editor
* Includes home textiles. This is the net cost, after as much value as possible has been recovered. The current market value of worn-out textiles are not covering collector and sorter costs, especially for collection and transport in full, leaving them at a £88 million a year loss. If the sector collapses, these costs will increase further.
** There will be high costs to sort the large amount of worn-out textiles that is collected each year if we don’t change how we sort textiles. WRAP worked with partners to model the impact of a network of 14 ATSPs in the UK, distributed to where used textiles are collected. We found that running these would cost 51% less than keeping to the current system for sorting (£38 million / year instead of £77m).
WRAP is a global environmental action NGO catalysing policy makers, businesses and individuals to transform the systems that create our food, textiles and manufactured products. Together these account for nearly 50% of global greenhouse emissions. Our goal is to enable the world to transition from the old take-make-dispose model of production to more sustainable approaches that will radically reduce waste and carbon emissions from everyday products. To do so we examine sustainability challenges through the lens of people’s day-to-day lives and create solutions that can transform entire systems to benefit the planet, nature and people.
Our work includes: UK Plastics Pact, UK Food & Drink Pact, UK Textiles Pact and the campaigns Love Food Hate Waste and Recycle Now. We run Food Waste Action Week and Recycle Week.