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From donation bins to new fibres – here is what really happens to a garment after you stop wearing it.
Most people are familiar with donating unwanted clothes to a charity bin or collection point, but few know what happens after that. The journey of a discarded garment toward becoming something new again involves several distinct stages, each of which determines whether that item will be reused, recycled, or – in too many cases – sent to landfill or incineration. Understanding how clothes are recycled reveals both the progress the industry has made and the gaps that still need to be closed.
Almost any garment can enter the recycling chain, but what happens to it depends heavily on its condition and fibre composition. Cotton, wool, polyester and blended fabrics each follow different recovery routes, and the proportion of clothing that is collected separately rather than thrown into general waste varies enormously between regions – one of the biggest factors determining how much textile material ever gets a second life.
When used clothing arrives at a textile sorting facility, the first task is grading – assessing the condition, quality and type of each item. Garments in good condition that are still wearable are typically separated for resale, either domestically through second-hand shops, or exported to markets where demand for second-hand clothing is high. This category represents the highest-value outcome for a used garment, since it requires no further processing and extends the useful life of the item directly.
Items that are not suitable for resale – due to damage, staining, or simply being out of demand – are directed toward recycling. At this stage, the fibre composition of the garment becomes critical. Cotton and other natural fibre garments can be mechanically shredded and respun into new yarn, or used to produce industrial wiping cloths and insulation material. Polyester and other synthetic garments can, in some cases, be processed through chemical recycling to recover the base polymer. Blended fabrics – combining, for example, cotton and polyester – are the most challenging, since separating the two fibre types typically requires specialised processes that are still scaling up commercially.
Beyond mechanical and chemical fibre recovery, garments that cannot be processed back into new fabric still have value. They can become industrial wiping cloths, insulation material, carpet underlay or stuffing – downcycling routes that, while less circular than fibre-to-fibre recycling, still divert material away from landfill and incineration.
Historically, the grading and sorting of used textiles has been done almost entirely by hand, with experienced sorters visually and physically inspecting each garment – checking fabric, looking for damage, and estimating fibre content based on touch and appearance. This process is slow, labour-intensive, and limited in its ability to accurately determine fibre composition, particularly for blended fabrics where visual inspection alone cannot reliably distinguish, say, a 60/40 cotton-polyester blend from a 95/5 blend.
Automated optical sorting changes this picture by using near-infrared sensors to scan each garment and determine its fibre composition objectively and at speed – something the human eye and hand cannot do reliably. PICVISA's ECOSORT TEXTIL system brings this capability to textile recovery facilities, automatically identifying fibre type and sorting garments accordingly – a step that is increasingly essential as collection volumes grow and as fibre-to-fibre recycling technologies mature and need consistent, well-characterised feedstock to operate efficiently.
Get in touch with our team to discover how PICVISA's optical sorting and robotics solutions can fit your recycling operation.