Clothing and textiles are the UK’s fastest growing household waste stream with hundreds of thousands of tonnes going to landfill each year.

We have clothing recycling banks on 48 of our sites where people can drop off their bags full of donations. They’re provided by the Salvation Army Trading Company Ltd – the trading arm of The Salvation Army.

What can I donate? 

Through The Salvation Army’s clothing banks, you can recycle lots of different items – clothes of every type, size and shape, any shoes in pairs, handbags, belts and linen.

Before donating, bag your clothes up and make sure they are clean. Wet and soiled materials can’t be sold and can potentially contaminate the rest of the clothing bank.

Helping good causes 

As well as doing your bit for the environment, donating textiles at clothing banks on our sites helps raise money for local good causes.

The Salvation Army splits all the money raised from our clothing banks with us and we share it amongst our Community Champions.

This year, the scheme raised more than £23,000 which went towards the environmental good causes we supported from June until September.

Clothing bag donations collected from now until end of March 2020 will go towards our Community Champions for next year.

How are clothing bags collected?

When a clothing bank is full, the donations are picked up by The Salvation Army’s network of locally-employed collectors. They also hold full waste carrier licenses so can deal with incidents of fly-tipping near the clothing banks.

What can I do if i spot a problem?

If you spot any problems, call the helpline on 0845 458 1999 or email helpline@satcol.org

Where does it all go?

Donations are sorted and then recycled in a variety of different ways. The priority is to support the mission work of The Salvation Army, including providing warm clothing and blankets to those experiencing homelessness. The next priority is to stock The Salvation Army’s network of over 230 charity shops, providing affordable clothing in communities while raising vital funds for the charity.

Excess textiles are exported to developing countries to find a new lease of life there.

Nationally, The Salvation Army’s clothing banks collect over 40,000 tonnes of textiles per year and less than 1 per cent of donations are sent to landfill.

What is the money raised used for?

Money raised for The Salvation Army funds the vital social welfare work it does for vulnerable people in the UK – there’s a huge range of projects from community activities for older people to helping victims of domestic abuse. 

One element you might not be familiar with is the Family Tracing Service. It helps restore family relationships by locating relatives who have lost contact with each other. It has an incredible 89 per cent success rate and on average, reunites eight people every working day.