We've explored the flaws of the clothing bank system in a dedicated article. You can now learn how to recognize the ones that are effectively operated by charities and give your clothes a much higher chance at being reused.

How do I avoid

Ok, most textile banks are hardly trustworthy. What then, should I simply give up donating and throw away clothes that are still in good condition? No. Again you can find out more in our guide to donating your clothes. But the main take away is to donate to charities directly, rather than risking a commercially owned bank. Although we prefer to go directly to a shop, it can be complicated to be available for a trip to the charity shop during their opening hours. That is why clothing bank were made in the first place: convenience. That is why some charities have invested in their own, to give you the option. The easiest type are the ones that are directly in the shop, which is pretty common in Portugal or Spain.

However, since most are outside, here’s how to recognise them in the wild. Since 2021, the Charities regulator developed a notice for all charities to make sure the following elements were made clear to citizens:

1. Brief details of what will happen to your donation. For example, your clothing donation might be going directly to the people that the charity assists or the clothes and other items that you donate might be sold or recycled to raise funds for the charity instead. What will happen to your donation should be made clear.  

2. The benefit the charity will receive (if operated by a private collector).

Let’s do a practical exercise together.

A good example of charity owned clothing banks are Liberty Ireland’s ones:

Their status as a charity is clearly displayed, with the charity number, contact and their waste collection exemption number.

Then they tell us what their activity is and how it is benefiting the charity and people who are in it:

To be noted: LIBERTY has their own sorting depot in Ireland, being one of the only sorting facility in the country.  

Bonus: they are aware of the problem and warn us:

What’s missing? Well the end use and destination of course! Which is answered on their websites.

Liberty really tackles the issue as well as possible in the current landscapte: providing training and jobs through the collection and sorting, reusing locally and recycling what isn't sellable. Liberty still exports some of its stock abroad, simply because we don't have recycling facilities in Ireland for textile. However, having gone through a meticulous sorting process, waste has most likely been labelled as such and appropriately sent to recycling facilities in Europe or for incineration.  

There isn't any reporting or traceability over that part of the process, which could be great to have acess to.That means that to date, there is no clear and available information about the end use and effective reuse or recycling of what is exported. Yet, that remains an example to follow in our development of collection and sorting clothing here in Ireland, always with reuse in mind.

This is why VOICE is advocating for clear definitions and transparency requirements for all operators in the post consumer textile sector.

A more questionable example would be the Clothes pods, a really well implanted company (TRL) that claims to:

Let’s look at their clothes banks:

Here, no information about the company, about the use and fate of the clothes put into it. The thing that is made clear tough is their partnership with Green Schools and how they support them by raising funds through clothes collection. Yet, they are not a registered charity. They are a for-profit company that has a huge part of the Irish post-consumer textile collection market. All of the collected clothes are exported, since they do not have sorting facilities in Ireland.

Transparency? Well, we tried to contact them twice to try and get information directly from them. No answer to this day.

If we listen to these companies, textile waste doesn’t exist, and everything can either be re-worn or recycled. Although, when you know that only 1% of clothing is currently being recycled into new clothing and an approximate 10-15% is being downcycled as rags, insulation… That leaves a pretty big margin of waste that can’t be repurposed.

There you go. You know now not to take clothing banks operators’ word for it. There is just too many uncertainties and too little ways to verify claims that are made by companies about the supposed “repurposing” of clothing. Even charities who do a great job at collecting and properly sorting with reuse as their primary goal can’t really ensure an effective management of the clothes that is exported.  

However, next time you’ve exhausted all the other options to extend the lifespan of your beloved dress: Repair, Resell or Reuse yourself, go to a charity shop directly, you’ll know what to look for on your local textile bank.

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