Clothes on the side: less than half can be worn many times | Popgen Tech

Research into WRAP Cymru’s textile inventory found that less than half of clothes collected at the kerbside could be re-worn. The proportion of clothing materials deemed suitable for reuse was only 46.4 per cent at kerbside compared to 50.3 per cent at household waste recycling centers (HWRCs). This rose to 54.6 percent and 59 percent when shoes are included.

WRAP Cymru is part of the UK climate NGO WRAP and provides a dedicated package of work to support the Welsh Government’s environmental objectives.

The study analyzed 10,860 kg of used textiles from Household Waste and Recycling Collection Centers (HWRC) and return points over eight non-consecutive weeks.

The research comes as local authorities have had to roll out a form of ‘separate textile levy’ as part of the EU’s Circular Economy Package 2018, which the UK signed up to. However, it doesn’t necessarily have to be on the side of the road, but the exact details are still unknown.

The analysis found that the fringe textile collection produced items of the lowest quality, “although not much lower than the HWRC”. Textile samples collected from curbside contained the highest proportion of non-target items (27.6 percent compared to 18.2 percent at HWRC), with a significant proportion wet, dirty or damaged (12.1 percent), the report added.