WRAP: Increasing costs of textile disposal could fall on charities and consumers

A new report by the NGO, Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), has warned that if the used textile disposal sector collapses, charities, local authorities and consumers could be subject to subsequent rising costs. This is particularly urgent as collectors and sorters are increasingly unable to make money on reusable items, with fewer being desirable to the secondhand market, WRAP said.

According to the organisation, UK textile collectors and sorters are facing an 88 million pound annual loss every year to manage secondhand textiles. If the sector collapses, however, WRAP indicates an increase in costs of 64 million pounds per year for local authorities. Without funding support, this could see costs of up to 200 million pounds per year by 2035, WRAP stated, “should the burden fall on councils to collect and dispose of our unwanted clothes”. In addition, an increase of 2.5 million tonnes of CO2e per year is anticipated due to the potential increase to landfill and incineration.

In a release, WRAP’s incoming chief executive officer, Catherine David, 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.”

ACT UK, or the Automatic-Sorting for Circularity in Textiles Project, was a two-year pilot project, wrapping in 2025, that set out to develop solutions and design infrastructure to manage the UK’s unwanted and unusable textiles. During the collection trials, WRAP reported that up to 46 percent more textiles were collected by giving the public an opportunity to donate old textiles alongside ones that could be reused.

Through the project, the organisation determined that advanced sorting and pre-processing facilities would save worn-out textiles from less favourable conditions. It suggests that through the creation of 14 such facilities offering a 25,000 tonne capacity per year, the cost for collection and sorting of old clothing would be reduced by about half by 2035.

WRAP is also proposing a new collaborative approach to retailer take-back schemes: the Textile Collections System Transition Programme. With this, brands could work together to co-design various initiatives that support the collecting and sorting industry. WRAP is inviting brands to participate in the programme to accelerate the approach.