Charity shops refusing donations as bags of unusable stock pile up

Charity shops in Cornwall are turning down customer donations because they can’t secure a textile recycling collection for unsellable clothing.
A number of smaller charities including the National Animal Welfare Trust in Hayle, The Fisherman’s Mission and Bolenowe Animal Sanctuary in Helston say their storage capacity is full of items they are unable to sell.
Previously, clothes that could not be sold would be collected for recycling and sent up country to textile recycle centres but its value has dropped so dramatically many collectors are ceasing trade.
The drop in value is having a huge impact on Cornwall’s largest charity shop chain Cornwall Hospice Care.
Their Chief Executive Paul Brinsley says it has cost the charity £70,000 in lost revenue.
“Over the last year we’ve lost about £70,000 in income from our rag, which is quite a substantial loss. That’s like two nurses effectively for us.”
Cornwall Hospice Care has thirty stores but one main donation warehouse in St Austell.
Paul says it’s only by having this one pickup point have they been able to secure a business willing to come down and collect the textiles.
“We send about two full sized lorries a month upcountry. But I do understand that for many local charities this is a really difficult issue.”
Deputy Manager of The Fisherman’s Mission charity shop, Jean Trimble, says the value of recycling has dropped from “45p per Kilo to 5p” so they have been selling stock at slashed prices.
Unlike bigger organisations they only have the one store room so are very limited with what they can do with donations they cannot sell.
“We’re not able to bag our clothes that we’ve looked at and had round on on the shop floor for weeks and weeks.”
“Once it’s on the shop floor and it’s gone down through the process of full price, half price and then sale rail, we have no alternative but to recycle it which is a shame because there is such a lot of stuff.”
Suzanne Goodwin runs the Bolenowe Animal Sanctuary shop across the road in Helston.
Standing next to a sizeable pile of black bin liners filled with clothes she says:
“This monstrosity of a mountain here is stuff that people bring in saying that they’re good and of course they’re not.
“But those were going to a rag man who has now gone into liquidation – well he hasn’t, it’s the people he deals with have gone into liquidation and he’s going to try and find another avenue. Whether he will or not, I don’t know.”
There are no textile recycling companies in the South West. Private collectors based in places like Bristol, Wales, Midlands, London have been transporting tonnes of garments hundreds of miles across the country but the value of the textiles has shrunk rapidly.
The Textile Recycling Association says the West Country has always had problems with getting items collected but despite the road network in the region “improving dramatically” in past decade, it’s “still an issue when you factor in how long it takes to get there from even Bristol”.
Mohammed Patel is the association’s Business Development Manager says the margins people are working are shrinking as the impact from the “current global geopolitical issues” means the price of used textiles “continues to drop”.
“The current issues are the culmination of “ a perfect storm” in the global used textiles market and currently there are no indications of this ending time soon.”
Charity shops in Cornwall say they couldn’t survive without donations but say too often some people donate clothing that should go straight to the local recycling centre.
They ask people to please only give donations that has potential life left in it for resale.