Charity shops are being overwhelmed by donations that cannot be sold, with managers reporting daily avalanches of soiled items and low-quality fast fashion, according to Guardian Money.
At St Raphael’s Hospice charity shop in Cheam, south London, the stockroom receives between 30 and 50 bags of donations a day on average, said commercial manager Caroline Worley, adding that more than 100 bags in a day is not unusual. Store manager Colin French, 48, said floor space is sometimes only sufficient to tiptoe through.
Much of what arrives is unsaleable, the article reports, including a smelly, soiled bathrobe, tatty trainers, heavily bobbled jumpers, old socks and an empty Swarovski jewellery case. Worley described the mix as absolutely typical.
The pattern mirrors the experience of author Tansy Hoskins, whose book Charity Shop World describes a charity retail sector in crisis. She spent 16 months working in a London charity shop, sorting through daily avalanches of clothing that swamped all other categories combined.
Every person Hoskins interviewed made a similar observation: quality is the big change marker and has gone through the floor, leaving staff fighting against waste. Since publication, she said managers of charity shops in places including Nottingham, Accrington and Newcastle have contacted her to say most of what they receive is waste.
Jose Baladron of Traid, which runs 12 shops across London, said demand for new clothes is through the roof and the UK is by far the highest consumer of clothing in Europe, which translates into more donations than small shops can process. Hoskins said ultra-fast-fashion donations routinely still had tags attached, with buyers receiving online purchases, deciding they were not wearable and donating them.
Only about 25% of clothing donations are sold by charity shops on average, according to Baladron, a figure also found in a University of Southampton study. The rest depends heavily on the rag trade, but Merryn Haines-Gadd of the environmental action charity Wrap said rag prices have plummeted because of saturation with low-quality fast fashion. Baladron said charities that once received 50-60p per kilo are now lucky to get 10p.
Anything the ragman cannot take must be paid for as waste. Worley said collections at St Raphael’s have included saucepans with food still in the bottom, babies’ soiled sleep-suits and used sanitary products. Libby Gordon, chief executive of Fara, which has 39 charity shops in London, said staff can become worn down when people donate unsaleable items, and that processing them carries a time cost.
Hoskins said rising utility costs and national insurance payments have left charity shops in a perfect storm. In June, the British Heart Foundation announced plans to close 150 of its 651 stores, and its latest accounts indicate its retail arm lost £3.3m last year. Cancer Research is part-way through a 190-shop closure programme, and rumours have circulated that up to 100 Oxfam shops might close, which the charity has denied.
Some organisations are pushing back. Fara’s new in-store poster campaign tells would-be donors: if you’d be happy to give it to a friend, we’d be delighted to receive it. Its online guide states that items should be clean, complete and in good condition.
The article notes that just as people wish cycle by putting unrecyclable material into recycling, they also wish give. Donations left outside a closed charity shop are technically fly-tipping, and charity shops often check CCTV, record numberplates and report such crimes. Bags left outside are frequently soiled by foxes or dogs, ripped open or rained on. At St Raphael’s, staff have found soiled mattresses, ripped sofas and an old toilet dumped outside, which Worley said leaves a big problem.
Disposal at scale is expensive. St Raphael’s, which costs around £7m a year to run as a charity and supports more than 1,000 patients a year with free end-of-life care, pays £30,000 a year to dispose of unsuitable donations. That sum could fund a month of around-the-clock specialist care for an inpatient, and its 13-bed inpatient unit can currently afford to keep only 10 places open.
Gordon said public generosity is how Fara supports its work in Romania, how the British Heart Foundation funds research and how Mind supports its mental-health work.
French said he saw the value of that funding first-hand after his sister died last year and received care from Princess Alice Hospice in Esher, Surrey, during her final three weeks, as did the whole family. He said his parents still return every week for bereavement support at no cost, and that such moments show the work is vital for communities.
Hoskins advised donors to connect with why they support a charity, whether the Red Cross, Cancer Research or an animal charity, and to donate responsibly, warning it would be a complete tragedy if charity shops vanished.
The article states that the fast-fashion business model produces clothes quickly and cheaply to churn out trends, with consequences for wardrobes, finances and the charity shops that receive the cast-offs.
Hoskins recommended washing clothes first, carrying out simple mending or using a free Repair Cafe. She said there is a perception that charity shops have laundries when they do not, and that the number one reason an item went into the rag bag was that it was dirty. She added that donors who can afford it should give their best items rather than sell them on Vinted.
Guardian Money also listed specialist routes for textiles that cannot be resold. Wrap estimates that almost half of all used textiles end up in the bin. For new pants and gently worn, laundered bras, smallsforall distributes them to people in need, while Bravissimo accepts bras of any brand and condition, plus swimwear, for redistribution or downcycling in store. The London Sock Company runs a sock amnesty for odd or holey socks, recycling them into fingerless gloves for the charity Give Your Best, with free UK postage.
Remill recycles 100% cotton items, excluding bedlinen, denim and underwear, into new clothing or downcycles them into cloths and insulation, offering free UK postage and a voucher for its recycled-cotton clothing. The Cashmere Centre recycles used pure cashmere into knits and gives a £10 voucher. JogOn, which aims to save 1m sports shoes from landfill, takes trainers and football boots in any condition, redistributes usable pairs, reports a 90% save rate and disposes sustainably of end-of-life shoes, with postage costing £2 for up to 30 pairs.
For general rag, the article suggests taking end-of-life textiles to a local textile recycling bank, using Recycle Now’s bin locator to check which bins accept specific items, including shoes. Ideally rag should be placed in a labelled bag to simplify sorting, pairs of shoes tied together, and nothing should be dumped if a bank is full, as it will most likely be binned.
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