Often when people donate old clothes for charity, they are never quite sure where these old clothes donations actually end up. Here at Recycled Clothing Banks, we make sure our clients are fully aware of what happens when they donate old clothes and the process that happens.
Once you’ve made the decision that you want to install some clothing donations bins near me, we will organisation your installation, brand your bin to your own personal design or charity logo and pay you for the amount of old clothes and household textiles you collect.
Once we have collected and emptied your bin, all items are hand sorted and separated for specific destinations around the world. All Grade A clothes consist of being 100% wearable, in good shape and colour with no marks or stains and these will be sent to shops just like the second-hand shops we have in the UK. We supply shops in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, The Czech Republic and many more countries where they will be resold to help those struggling communities.
All Grade B clothing and school wear would go further afield to our partners in Africa, Ghana, Cameroon and The Ivory Coast and may be over-washed, slightly misshapen or have small marks on. We also work with a school clothing supplier based in Kent to supply out of date school wear to these counties which helps us to recycle what would usually end up in landfill and helps the whole textiles eco system. Any bedding that is donated also gets a second lease of life by being used as dust sheets for painting garages and shops or cut up for rags in car washes – so a massive 85% gets a second use.
Closer to home and here in the UK, all new underwear including new socks and any brand-new unused soaps and toiletries are given to our charity partner, Hands On London, whose volunteers distribute these to our vulnerable homeless people on the streets of London. Similarly, any sleeping bags are donated to our homeless charities and we have recently donated a generous supply to The Spitalfields Crypt Trust.
We quite often receive new balls of knitting wool which we pass on to knitting enthusiasts who make soft toys for children and donate them to paediatric hospitals and children’s charities; nothing is wasted.
So, if you are considering installing charity clothes bins near me and you would like to work with our team at Recycled Clothing Banks, we would be more than happy to help with your clothing donations, helping people all over the world as well as in the UK.