What really happens to all the clothes rejected by charity shops
telegraph.co.ukfigures from the Charity Retail Association, in the year 2018-19 these donations raised £331m, up from £295m the previous year, in profits for charity – and kept 339,000 tonnes of textiles from being disposed of.
To put the latter figure into perspective, that’s the same weight as nearly 28,000 London buses. Although data from this year is yet to be released, anecdotally charity shop retailers experienced a huge spike in donations and sales when lockdown restrictions eased.
Not everything that’s been donated is suitable for sale though. In fact, according to a report from the Environmental Audit Committee in 2019, only about 30 percent of donations are actually resold within the UK.
Some items are just too faulty or soiled for any kind of second life. In recent years reports have emerged of some charities including the British Heart Foundation spending hundreds of thousands of pounds a year to get rid of damaged goods.
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