By Joshua Robinson – 

Kirklees Council has partnered with Textile Recycling International (TRI) to introduce new specially designed clothes banks for recycling clothes.

The council is asking residents to separate clothing and home textiles into two textile collection banks, one for wearable and reusable items titled Too Good to Throw Away, and the other for non-wearable/reusable items for recycling titled Worn Out.

The textile banks are situated in pairs at ten locations across Kirklees. People will find information on the front of each bank to explain the types and conditions of textiles that can be donated. TRI will then sort the clothing at their hub in Manchester where, as part of a wider trial, it will be recorded whether the banks have been used correctly.

This data will be sent for evaluation and analysis to the Waste & Resources Action Program (WRAP) until the end of October. Clothes in good condition will be sent on for resale, with the proceeds going to support the Yorkshire charity Children’s Heart Surgery Fund, while those that are no longer wearable will be recycled.

Materials from items sent for recycling could eventually be used by UK-based clothing and textile manufacturers to make new clothing to be sold in the UK.

Councillor Munir Ahmed, Cabinet Member for Environment and Highways, said to Kirklees Together: “These new banks will remove any confusion as to what textiles can and cannot be recycled and make it even easier for residents to make the shift to a more circular economy. Once the data gathering has concluded the facilities will remain on site and continue to collect both reusable and non-reusable textiles, supporting our aim for a zero-waste future.”

“Recycling is a great start, but it is important to fully embrace the hierarchy of waste by reducing waste, reusing what you can, and recycling everything possible.”

The trial is part of the Automatic-sorting for Circularity in Textiles (ACT UK) project, led by the UK Fashion and Textile Association (UKFT). Every year, the UK generates over 1 million tonnes of used textiles, but new recycling processes mean that the possibilities to recycle fibres are increasing in the UK. The ACT UK project aims to enable the diverting of thousands of tonnes of textile waste from landfills and their disposal each year.

To learn more, please visit: https://kirkleestogether.co.uk/2024/09/03/new-textile-recycling-banks-in-kirklees/

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