28th July 2023

“It’s distressing to see images of textile waste, where garments are left unused and impacting the environment and those who live nearby. Salvation Army Trading Company (SATCoL) operate 240 stores and 8,000 clothing banks on behalf of The Salvation Army, UK, and are leading the way to divert as many clothes as possible from landfill.

“As a society we need to think carefully about how much we consume, and as a charity textile collector we work hard to provide solutions to textile reuse and recycling – each year we accept around 62,000 tonnes of clothing donations and divert them to good uses. While clothes that we cannot reuse or recycle in our shops are sold on to textile recycling merchants, we only use vetted merchants and do not allow poor quality items or waste to be exported.

“As the trading arm of the UK Salvation Army we always provide for those in need first and each year we distribute tens of thousands of donated goods, at no cost, directly to people through our shops, via our parent charity or other charities and community groups that come to us for help. We continually invest in technology and work with partners to provide solutions to textile recycling and strive to create a circular textiles economy where unwearable items can be recycled back into the fashion supply chain.

“Two innovations are Fibersort (the UKs only automated fibre sorting machine which is the first step in textile-to-textile recycling and which has been operational since early 2022 in our Kettering Processing Centre) and a world-first polyester recycling plant due to start commercial scale operations in the Autumn in Kettering too.

“Although we are not directly connected to our Salvation Army branches overseas, our UK operations do help fund overseas projects and we are extremely proud of The Salvation Army in Ghana and their work which has been highly-commended for the socio-economic development, such as the provision of schools, hospitals and other major projects.

“We are extremely grateful for the donations we receive from members of the public and corporate partners and always act responsibly to ensure they are reused wherever possible, and when they are not reused they are recycled responsibly either by ourselves or our partners.”

Additional information:

In the UK, the supply of second-hand donated items, far outstrips the demand. Market data shows us that charity shops in the UK sell about 55% of clothes that are donated to them (page 15, Textiles Market Situation report 2019 | WRAP).

Overseas export markets are also a route for textile sales - these are active markets for second-hand items where there is a demand for affordable clothes.  There is a genuine concern regarding exporting textiles to other countries, and SATCoL has been leading the way for years to raise standards. Part of what we do is work with long-standing and reputable suppliers and undertake audits via a Code of Conduct.

SATCoL is a founding member of TRUST which has the backing of more than 2,500 charity shops across the United Kingdom, and was formed in 2019 from representatives of the Charity Retail Association, Textile Recycling Association, charity retail chains, academics, waste reduction charities, textile recyclers, and input from the Environment Agency, the WISH (Waste Industry Safety and Health) Forum and the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM).