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It is estimated that we throw away as much as one million tonnes of textiles every year. When old clothes and textiles are thrown away, they are most likely to end up in a landfill site.

Most of this comes from household sources, but it also comes from fabric and garment factories.

Landfill

Most of the waste produced in the UK ends up in landfill sites. Landfill sites are large areas where land is replaced by rubbish or waste.

Landfill sites pose a threat to local ground water supplies. Every time it rains, water drains through all the rubbish, and picks up chemicals and hazardous materials from whatever is in the landfill site. This includes chemicals used in clothing and textiles such as dyes and bleaches. The water collects at the bottom of the landfill, often in large amounts and can be up to 200 times as toxic as raw sewage.

The second problem with landfillling is the generation of gases as a by-product of decomposition such as methane. Methane can be explosive if it is allowed to build up.

Why Recycle?

• Recycling reduces the need for landfill space. Textiles present particular problems in landfill as synthetic (man-made fibres) products will not decompose, while woollen garments do decompose and produce methane, which contributes to global warming.
• Recycling results in less pollution and energy savings, as fibres do not have to be transported from abroad.
• By re-using existing fibres and textiles, there is no need to make these textiles from raw materials (such as cotton, wool, and synthetic fibres) This saves on the energy used and pollution caused during manufacturing processes like dying, washing, and scouring.

What you can do to support recycling

1. Take your old clothes to clothes banks and charity shops

Instead of throwing away your old clothes in the rubbish, you can take them to 'clothes banks' or charity shops.

The Salvation Army, Scope, and Oxfam use a clothing bank scheme. Scope also runs a national door-to-door textile collection service. There are about 3,000 textile banks nationwide, and only about a quarter of the space in clothes banks is currently used so there is lots of room for more clothes.

The Salvation Army has the largest number of textile banks in the UK - over 2,000. On average, each of these banks collects about six tonnes of textiles per year. These clothes are given to the homeless, sold in charity shops or sold in developing countries in Africa, the Indian sub-continent and parts of Eastern Europe. Nearly 70% of items put into clothing banks are reused as clothes, and any un-wearable items are sold to merchants to be recycled and used as factory wiping cloths.

2. Support fashion brands, charity shops and businesses which use second-hand and recycled products

More and more designers and businesses are now making fashion ranges out of recycled clothes, recycled fabrics or fibres.

Some examples are Junky Styling, which makes clothes from old suits, and Patagonia, which uses recycled drinks bottles for some of its fleece products.

TRAID is a charity committed to protecting the environment and reducing world poverty by recycling and campaigning at home. Traid has shops all over London, and as well as selling second-hand clothes, it sells clothes which have been customised by Traid designers and turned into something completely new.

3. Customise your own clothes or clothes you have bought second-hand from charity shops

It is amazing what you can create from something you thought you would never wear again with a little imagination.

Customising your own clothes means that you can create your own unique style, to suit your taste and lifestyle.