Press Release Archive

• More needs to be done to tackle fake charity clothing collection banks.
• Textile Recycling Association welcomes research from Nordic Countries which concludes that exports of used clothing give net economic, environmental and social benefits.
• Recycled Textile Associations Unite to Combat Media Misconceptions of Secondhand Clothing Industry.
• Textile Recycling Association Welcomes New President as Economic Squeeze Continues.
• Textile Recycling Association Relaunches Charity Shop Grade Specifications.
• TRA supports clothing sector leaders commitment to reducing water, carbon and waste.
• Textile Recycling Association welcomes ground breaking publications by WRAP.
• Textile Recycling Association launches Code of Practice to improve industry standards.
• Textile Recycling Association welcomes WRAP’s research on “Valuing our Clothes”.
• TRA – High price of used clothing has profound effects on charities’, businesses’ and local authorities’ ability to raise funds.
• Textile Recycling Association endorses positive actions to protect reputation of £200 million p.a. charity fundraising clothing collections.
• Criminal Clothing Collection Thieves Threaten Jobs
• Textile Recycling Association welcomes Waste Policy Review
• Institute of Fundraising launches revised code of practice covering charitable door to door clothing collections
• TEXTILE RECYCLING ASSOCIATION WELCOMES LAUNCH OF IOF/FRSB REVISED CODE OF PRACTICE FOR HOUSE TO HOUSE COLLECTIONS
• MEETING TO TACKLE BOGUS CHARITIES – MOST PROMISING OUTCOME IN YEARS.
• Textile Recycling Association welcomes research papers about the impact of Second Hand Clothing Industry on Sub-Saharan Africa – 12th December 2005
• The European Conference on the future of the Textile and Clothing Reclamation Industry – Brussels – 13th October 2005
  Textile Recycling Businesses: Are they an endangered species?

Radio and Newspaper Reports

• Radio 4 – You and Yours Programme – 26th December 2008.
  According to the government research, clothes waste is the fastest growing waste of all, so how good are we at recycling clothes? You and Yours investigates. Guests : Michael Jack MP Chair of the Environment Select Committee and Alan Wheeler, Textile Recycling Association.
  http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/items/01/2008_52_fri.shtml
• Guardian Article of Interest
  Have you ever wondered what happens to your clothing once you place it in a council
  approved textile recycling bank? Read “Clothes Line”, by Michael Durham published
  in The Guardian on 25th February 2004 and follow the trail of a £50 blouse from a
  recycling bank in Ashby-de-la-zouch to a small Zambian village hut.
  http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1155254,00.html
• Valuing our Clothes – The true cost of how we design, use and dispose of clothing in the UK, published by WRAP, 11th July 2012.
  To view the supporting documentation to Valuing our Clothes click here.
• Maximising Reuse and Recycling of UK Clothing and Textiles – EV0421 – published by DEFRA, 2010.
  The overall aim of this project is to report up-to-date, comprehensive and robust data on the quality and quantity of clothing and textile waste in the UK and present and evaluate strategies for environmentally sound End-of-Life (EOL) management, in particular increasing reuse and recycling rates.
  “Well dressed? The present and future sustainability of clothing and textiles in the United Kingdom”. –
• Mass balance and scenario analysis for UK clothing and textiles sector – Institute for Manufacturing – Cambridge University – November 2006.
  The aims of this research were:
  • To map the flows of materials, energy and emissions, coming in, being used within and going out the UK, for the Clothing and Textile Sector.
  • To evaluate the environmental, the economic and social impact of alternative supply chain structures or other scenarios in the clothing and textile sectors.
  • To identify production or recycling technologies of change (reducing the environmental burden of the sector, while retaining competitive profitability)
  • To give suggestions on how to achieve certain desirable changes.
• The impact of the second-hand clothing trade on developing countries
  Sally Baden and Catherine Barber,
  Oxfam, September 2005 (PDF file)
• Salaula: the world of secondhand clothing and Zambia
  Karen Hansen, Chicago University Press, 2000
  (Review by JL Parpart, Dalhousie University, pub H-SAfrica 2001- PDF file)
• Recycling of Low Grade Clothing Waste
  Oakdene Hollins, September 2006 (PDF file)
  The primary purpose of the study into the Recycling of Low Grade Clothing Waste is to integrate an economic and market study of the used clothing recycling industry in the UK with technological developments which are aimed at improving the markets for recycling grades of clothing.
• Fashioning Sustainability – A review of the sustainability impacts of the clothing industry
  Forum for the Future – March 2007 (PDF file)
  This report is intended as a first point of call for anyone wanting to know about the social and environmental impacts of the clothing industry. It is a comprehensive overview rather than a detailed analysis, but will point you in the direction of more in depth information.
• OUVERTES project.
  An EU funded report by textile reuse and recycling players on the status of the industry in Europe – June 2005.