Textile recycling ...where?

[wee quinnie]

Can anyone tell me where i might find a facility for recycling textiles (old household linens not in good enough nick for charity shop). I had a look on Southwark council website and was sent off to east Dulwich grove, couldn't locate the facility in question. The postcode given is se22 8pu, which refers to 79 -99 East Dulwich Grove. I am confused!

[katanita]

Ha, I did the same thing, spent ages looking for that non-existent textile bin. I could have sworn I messaged Southwark at the time to ask them about it/ask them to remove it if it doesn't exist, but haven't had a response. Anyway, there is one by the Plough, but there have been suggestions that the organisation running it (a charity) is a bit dubious. As far as I know, the only other local option now that all the other bins have been removed is to wait for the mobile recycling truck to turn up at Sainsburys, but I have no idea how to find out when that happens. Would love to know if anyone else has a clue!

[singalto]

The mobile recycling truck has stopped its visits. I took textiles not fit for sale to St Christopher shop in a bag clearly marked ?rags? and they were happy to take it.

[katanita]

Thanks Singalto, but what a pain. I've been hanging on to stuff for that truck, where am I meant to take small electricals etc now? All the way to the tip at Old Kent Road, I suppose, which is a huge hassle. I wonder if there is any way to get local bins back.

ETA: apparently there may be a textile bin at Bel Air Park, according to Southwark's recycling locator https://www.southwark.gov.uk/bins-and-recycling/recycling/recycling-centres/recycling-locator.

[japseylarue]

I've started taking my small fabric scraps ( I do alterations) to a charity shop for them to sell as rag. I expect they'd take any clean textiles to sell in this way.

[sweetgirl]

H&m have textile recycling bins....

They even give you a ?5 voucher towards your next shop over ?25!

[sanity girl]

Was also going to suggest H&M for recycling textiles. You can take small electrical sto Curry?s in Brixton for recycling

[bels123]

The Mind charity shop by the Goose Green roundabout takes it as they get paid for the recycling material

[Siduhe]

There are still textile recycling points in Lewisham - so disappointing that Southwark has basically stopped other than at the central depot. Two Lewisham points close to ED are on the small housing estate on Wood Vale near FHR and Sydenham Hill (Google Maps has it as no 38 SH).

[tomskip]

There's a good range of recycling bins at the big Sainsburys at Bell Green. In the car park, near the petrol station. Certainly can leave textiles and small electricals there (I did yesterday).

[Lynne]

The larger St C's shop will take textiles for re-cycling. Bag them and mark them recycling to save the shop having to sort through them. They won't take duvets or pillows, though

[ChristineC]

I took some "rags" (mostly clean fabric scraps and old curtains) into the main Southwark Refuse and Recycling Centre on the Old Kent Road and was directed to the "everything else" section. I suspect most of this stuff is used as fuel and incinerated. I can't see anyone retrieving fabrics for reuse from soggy plastic bags/household refuse. Apparently the owners of the clothing bins sort their donations here and anything not good enough for sale is simply left - and so has the same fate. So if you want to recycle fabric in an environmentally friendly way this is not the place. Sadly.

[singalto]

As Lynne says the St C shop takes ?rags?. I put them in a bag clearly marked as rag and they will happily take them.

[cazbee]

Last time I checked Pecan, the Peckham food bank, take clothes for recycling. They get some money by weight.

[Sally Eva]

There's clothing bank at the junction of Hichisson Road and Cheltenham Road. I saw it from the top of a bus

[Elphinstone's Army]

for anyone who may/might or knows anyone who does shop here, H&M have a scheme whereby a bag of clean rags, (worn out under/clothes, dead t towels /dishcloths, odd socks, tired jumpers etc) deposited at the check out in the designated bin, elicits a voucher for ?5, enabled when one spends ?25, with a limit of two per purchase. If you spend ?50 plus they manipulate the prices so that it's possible to use two.

The sales are well worthwhile.

Brixton store has a homewares upstairs, excellent value sales items, linen bathrobes, bedding, children's clothes.

This then leaves you more ready cash to spend in the charity shop of your choice, removing any guilt pangs at indulging your inner worthiness.

[ianr]

I had to look up H&M. I see that they also provide the benefit of removing the burden of having to distinguish between Rewearables, Reusables and Recyclables? https://about.hm.com/en/sustainability/get-involved/recycle-your-clothes.html ("And then what" 60% downpage).

Any idea whether old rucksacks (damaged beyond respectable or reliable usability) might be included? Or shoes of any kind? At H&M or anywhere else?

[Elphinstone's Army]

I don't believe H&M accept shoes or old rucksacks,

but the CS will - for the rag man. They strip everything down, buckles, straps, leather, all reused,

If you didn't know what H&M was then you will not benefit

from a ?5 voucher? against a ?25 purchase.

Unless of course you are going to be a new recruit in which case I am on commission.