My friend was recently stopped at the door of a large Charity Clothing Op Shop. The secondhand play clothes that ‘still had some life in them’ were turned away.

“We can’t accept old play clothes because you can buy them cheaper at Kmart than we can sell in the op shop”.

That one line. It sums up our societal dilemma. We are addicted to the affordability and variety of fast fashion, but our eco-consciousness doesn’t allow us to just throw it in the bin when we want to dispose of it. If we can’t sell it or pass it on, why can’t we donate it to charity?

The answer lies in the evolution of Charity Shops.

The evolution of Charity Shops in Australia

During the global economic depression of the 1890s, charity stores emerged as a way to give low-income earners access to goods. Clothing manufacturing then was more like what we aspire to as Slow Fashion today. Garments were produced in small quantities, purchased as an investment and cared for as such. More significantly, more clothes were home made, repaired and refurbished. Donated goods were expected to be less than perfect.

As recently as the 1940s, clothing and textiles were still recognised as a limited resource. In response to the Second World War, the British Government launched their Make-do and Mend scheme to reduce the rate of clothing consumption, conserve resources and respond to the rising cost of living.

As a more affluent middle class emerged, buying from a Charity Shop had a stigma. In Australia during the 1920s, former Melbourne showgirl, Lady Millie Tallis coined the term Op Shop as a more dignified term than Opportunity Shop. Even so, secondhand clothing was still viewed as inferior.

From Charity to Boho and Eco-chic

A shift in reputation started in the 1960s with the emergence of youth culture. People trawled Op Shops to adorn themselves in vintage finds, a stance of non-conformity. More recent trends like Shabby Chic and now Eco-Consciousness have created demand and forced thrift stores to ‘up their game’ and adopt merchandising strategies similiar to large firsthand fashion brands.

Today the Charitable Reuse Recycling Sector is enormous. Charities big and small [The Nest included] rely on raising revenue through the sale of donated goods. What has emerged is the concept of ‘saleability’. Using our earlier example, if a charity accepts a donation of preloved play clothes it wouldn’t be saleable because it could be bought new for less. If a charity was to accept it, they would need to dispose of it and incur a cost to either dump it or have a third party recycle it.

Unlike donated funds, charities today need to be discerning in what donated goods they accept and it has a lot to do with overwhelm.

The growing need for the Charitable Reuse Recycling Sector

A recent study revealed that every 10 minutes 6000 kilos of textiles and clothing end up in landfill in Australia. The charity sector is overwhelmed with just 1% of the donated garments recycled.

Compared to other charities, our organisation is tiny, but even we feel the pressure. In the last 10 years we’ve processed 620,477 litres of textile donations. In the last 12 months, we processed 234,905 litres of donations through our Textile Recovery Centre, which represents 40% of our totals to date.

It was a big year and demand for our services continues to grow. Thanks to our incredible community of donors that follow our donations guidelines, we are able to recirculate as much as 70% of the 5000 litres of donations we receive weekly. By comparison, an Australian study has revealed that of all the clothing processed by the Charitable Reuse Recycling Sector, as little as 16.5% is sold in a charity shop and just 0.4% is given as welfare.

How The Nest adds value to textile waste

Unlike receiving a finished garment, we can achieve such high percentages of recirculation because we add value to the textile donations we receive. Jumbled trims and rewind them onto boards. We check and repackage unfinished projects. Deadstock fabric is re-rolled into domestic quantities. This is all thanks to the skill and knowledge of our volunteers.

Unfortunately in the fight against clothing and textile waste little will change until manufacturers embrace a circular economy and ‘do the right thing’ by taking responsibility for the sustainability and disposal of their own product. Until then, the search for the best disposal option rests with consumers.

The Nest Community may not be able to ‘do it all’ when it comes to reclaiming textiles, but we can change mindsets around textile consumption. Stitch Together is our boldest program yet, designed to invigorate the broader community through partnerships, support and engagement. With craft and hand making at its core, we are making that fight against textile waste a communal rather than an individual responsibility.