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‘You sold it – now recycle it’: the protesters mailing worn-out clothes to the shops they bought them from

Charity shops won’t take them. Councils incinerate them. Retailers dump them on the global south. We’re running out of ideas on how to deal with our used clothes – and the rag mountain just keeps growing

And, she added, “I don’t want to put it into a textile recycling collection as the likelihood is that it will be shipped overseas or incinerated and not recycled.” Ward qualified her assertions with links to respected sources – as a sustainable fashion PhD student, she is well informed on such matters. This isn’t a sustainable option as such processes have been shown to be as damaging to local air pollution as burning coal.” So, she concluded, “as Sainsbury’s is responsible for designing and manufacturing this product, making decisions to use polycotton with no consideration for what could be done once it reaches the end of its life, I have decided to return it to you. A 2023 investigation by the environmental campaign group Changing Markets Foundation (CMF), entitled Take-back Trickery, found that 75% of clothing donated to fashion stores – among them, Marks & Spencer, H&M, Zara and Nike – was destroyed, abandoned in warehouses or sent overseas.

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