Voluntary used-clothing collection collapses when the resale market that secretly funds it fails
#00046
Clothing banks look free but are secretly funded by selling the reusable fraction, mostly exported. When export demand collapsed and ultra-fast-fashion flooded banks with unsellable items, each container flipped to a loss — causing operators to quietly withdraw, ending the servic
#00048Ultra-fast-fashion volume makes the average garment cost more to sort than it is worth
Ultra-fast-fashion floods donation banks with cheap blended-fibre garments: a larger share is unsellable and hard to recycle, while item-by-item sorting cost rises. The same tonne costs more to process and yields less revenue, collapsing sorting margins independently of export de
#00047The export market for sorted used clothing — which funds Northern collection — is closing
Northern textile collection is funded by exporting the reusable fraction — historically ~half of sorted EU volume — to African markets. That outlet is closing: importing countries increasingly buy cheap new Asian garments instead, and several destinations now restrict secondhand