Where it goes?

2009.10.21

All clothing collected by Bag2School is sold, either sorted or un-sorted, to importers and wholesalers in many countries of Eastern and Western Europe, Africa and Asia.

Regardless of whether clothes are given to charities, clothing banks, council collections or Bag2School this is where the goods are all sold. 80 % of discarded clothing goes for reuse as clothes and the other 20 % enters the recycling industry for bed manufacture, socks, blankets and the industrial wiper trade. The only alternative to this is for the goods to go to a landfill site.

As a nation we throw away about 1,500,000 tonnes a year of clothes of which the textile industry handles around 300,000 tonnes, there are, therefore, over 1,000,000 tonnes still going to landfill sites. Bag2School is a good way to dispose of unwanted clothing, raise money for your school or a charity of your choice and provide a supply of affordable clothing. Bag2School is working with DEFRA on the Textile Roadmap Process for reuse and recycling and the newly formed RITE Group which is committed to sustainability and ethical production of textiles.

Since 2001 Bag2School has paid £7,000,000 to schools. 73.6% of our gross turnover in 2007 was paid to schools, 26.1% went on operating costs and 0.3% was profit.