Textiles

In the UK around 336,000 tonnes of our unwanted clothing gets thrown away every year. That is the equivalent of 30 Eiffel Towers.

Don’t place textiles in with your household waste. Recycle them instead.

Textiles put into your black bin or reusable sack can get caught in the sorting machinery at Forest Park and could also end up in landfill.

It is important to recycle our clothing, but the best option is to reduce the amount of clothing we buy. If we can reuse products, we can work toward a more sustainable planet.

Although recycling is quick and easy with kerbside collection, there are lots of things you can do before that, such as:

• reuse your clothes by upcycling them into something new, such as turning a t-shirt into a bag or cushion cover
• donate them to a charity
• sell them online or at a local event
• host a clothes ‘swap’ party.

Use our service to tackle textile waste. We collect textiles and clothing for recycling on your recycling week.

To use our free textile recycling service:

• place unwanted textiles or clothes into a separate, standard plastic shopping bag or a clear or white bag. This helps our collection crew to see it is only textiles in the bag
• leave the bag to the side of your recycling bin or green reusable sack
• the crew will then place the textiles in a separate collection pod on the vehicle
• the textiles are sent away to be re-used or recycled into new products such as mattress fillings.

Textiles that can be recycled:

• clean, unwanted clothes (including ripped or damaged)
• cushion covers
• duvet covers
• pillowcases
• curtains
• shoes.

Bulky items such as:

• duvets
• rugs
• pillows
• cushions.

You can take these bulky items to one of our recycling centres or put them in your general waste container if there is room.