Recycling of Low Grade Clothing Waste - Oakdene Hollins

© Oakdene Hollins Ltd, Salvation Army Trading Company Ltd
Nonwovens Innovation & Research Institute Ltd September 2006
The implications of this for the secondary textiles sector is that lower
quality, items are being collected, and there is a reduction in the sales value
of the wearable items. The consumer has to choose, say, between a new
shirt, now available at £5, and a second‐hand shirt at £3. When the new
item was above £10, it was easier to make the decision in favour of the used
item. In addition, the re‐saleable proportion of the collected items is
declining, meaning that increasing quantities have to be recycled, or
disposed of to the waste stream, at a cost to the collector or merchant.
These trends in volumes and prices are likely to accelerate as a result of the
cessation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Multi‐Fibre Arrangement
(MFA) in January 2005, especially when the current transitional
arrangements are exhausted. China and India will dominate the
production of new textile materials and products through major vertical
integration programmes. Both economies produce high technology, high
quality fabrics and have low garment production labour costs. Pacific Rim
Multi‐Fibre Alliance countries such as Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam
will increasingly rely on Chinese fabrics, and manufacturing will suffer
here when the market is fully freed up. China and its ‘satellite’ countries
will be used more for the long run, stable designs such as jeans, tops,
T‐shirts and underwear, with the less predictable, low cost fashion items
more likely to come from North Africa, Italy and Turkey.
Whilst China sees its participation in the textile industry as ‘transitory’, i.e.
that they will want to be out of it in, say, 20 to 30 years time, the changes
that they will cause in the world textile market are seen as irreversible. The
belief in the industry is that prices will drop a further 30% from today’s
levels when China is supplying the market free of import restrictions.
Whilst all figures must be treated with caution, because of the changes in
fashion during the last ten years, it is the trends in the market place that are
irrefutable.
This activity in the new clothing market will further weaken collection
economics and depress the sales and margins of second‐hand clothes. All
of these problems, which affect the charity shop and commercial textile
recyclers, have been widely reported in the national and trade press.
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