Charity recycling keeps usable goods in circulation while helping fund social programs and making essential items more affordable. The figures below show the scale of charitable reuse, with a focus on textile recycling and UK reuse activity. Measurement periods vary: some figures are annual sector estimates, while others cover a named year or a 12-month period.
Contents
- Charitable reuse at a glance
- Textile diversion and recovery
- Reuse Network household impact
- The changing UK textile market
- Charity shops and donation income
- Jobs, volunteers, and infrastructure
Charitable reuse at a glance
Charitable Reuse Australia’s impact report describes a sector with environmental, economic, and community effects. Its figures are sector-level annual figures rather than measurements for one individual charity.
- Charitable recycling diverts over 1 million tonnes of waste from landfill each year.
- The sector raises almost A$1 billion for social good annually.
- It creates over 5,300 jobs and engages 33,500 volunteers.
- Volunteers contribute 9.2 million hours per year.
- The network includes more than 3,000 charity and social enterprise retailers and more than 10,000 charity bins.
- The reported resource recovery rate is 86%.
The same Charitable Reuse Australia impact report gives three comparative environmental measures. Charitable recycling reduces carbon emissions by 66% relative to disposal, reduces energy use by 59%, and reduces water consumption by 57%. These are relative reductions reported by the source; they should not be read as absolute tonnes, kilowatt-hours, or litres saved.
The figures also illustrate why “recycling” in a charity context often includes reuse. A garment, appliance, or piece of furniture may first be sold or supplied for another use. Only material that cannot be reused follows a conventional recycling or recovery route. The 86% recovery rate therefore describes the reported network outcome, not necessarily a recycling-only rate.
Textile diversion and recovery
The Salvation Army’s SATCoL releases provide several measures of textile activity. SATCoL diverts over 65,000 tonnes of textiles from landfill each year and puts more than 250 million items to good use annually. Its operating network includes 9,000 clothing banks and over 240 charity shops.
Another Salvation Army high-honours release reports that SATCoL collected, reused, and recycled around 47,000 tonnes of textiles in a 12-month period. That 12-month figure and the annual diversion figure describe different reported measures, so they are not added together. The same release says the charity shops date back to 1993, when the first shops opened alongside the textiles recycling business.
The Salvation Army’s reuse and recycle page reports that one tonne of textiles reused rather than sent to landfill cuts 7 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. It also says that extending the average life of clothes by 9 months would save £5 billion in resources. These are source-reported estimates and claims, not calculations made from the other figures in this article.
SATCoL reports that less than 1% of what it collects is sent to landfill. The Salvation Army also estimates that £140 million worth of used clothing, equal to 350,000 tonnes, goes to landfill each year. The estimate concerns used clothing going to landfill in the wider context; it is not presented as SATCoL’s own landfill total.
A specific partnership gives another example of targeted collection. The Salvation Army’s Haven release says the partnership recycled over 80 tonnes of clothing across 35 UK holiday parks. Because the release describes a partnership result, it should not be treated as a national annual total.
Reuse Network household impact
Reuse Network’s published figures connect material reuse with household support. In 2025, the network supported 1.5 million low-income households and redirected 77,470 tonnes of waste from landfill. It reported saving 83,262 tonnes of CO2 in that year.
The Reuse Network 2025 social impact report gives a narrower measure for commercial retail partnerships. In 2025, those partnerships supplied 48,000 furniture and electrical items to members, helped 28,271 UK households, and saved low-income households £5.9 million. They prevented 2,324 tonnes of products from being wasted and saved 1,971 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
The comparison below places the reported annual results side by side. The measures are not identical in every year, so a blank cell means that the supplied report did not state that particular figure rather than zero impact.
| Year | Furniture and electrical items reused | Households supported | Household savings | CO2 saved | Products prevented from waste |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 48,000 through commercial partnerships | 1.5 million | £5.9 million through partnerships | 83,262 tonnes | 2,324 tonnes through partnerships |
| 2024 | 2.55 million | 1.5 million | £321.2 million | 92,566 tonnes | — |
| 2023 | 2.6 million | 1.59 million | £335.3 million | 96,643 tonnes | 89,920 tonnes |
| 2022 | 2.7 million | 1.18 million | £343.2 million | — | — |
| 2021 | 1.5 million | 652,098 | £188.5 million | — | — |
| 2020 | 3.4 million | 1.5 million | £427.6 million | 111,664 tonnes | 123,236 tonnes |
The 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020 figures come from the respective Reuse Network social impact reports. They show that reuse activity can be measured in several ways: items kept in service, households reached, household financial benefit, products avoided as waste, and carbon emissions saved. The differences between years should be interpreted with care because the reporting scope and measures may vary.
The changing UK textile market
WRAP’s Textiles Market Situation Report 2024 says the UK generated 1.45 million tonnes of used textiles in 2022. Of that total, 276,000 tonnes were sold to the public, while 650,000 tonnes were diverted to reuse and recycling from end-of-life disposal. The report also records 421,600 tonnes of used textiles exported in 2022.
For 2021, WRAP reports that 711,000 tonnes of used textiles were discarded in household bins and household waste recycling centre containers. Almost half, or 49%, of all used textiles in the UK were disposed of in general waste. WRAP expresses that as an average of 35 items per person per year. Of the discarded textiles, 84% were incinerated with energy recovery and 11% were sent to landfill.
Donation economics changed between 2013 and 2023. WRAP reports that the price per tonne for textile bank donations fell 57.5% over that period, while the price per tonne for charity shop donations fell 41%. In 2023, textile bank donations averaged £172.50 per tonne and charity shop donations averaged £255 per tonne.
The market also includes new clothing and take-back schemes. WRAP reports that the UK consumed 1.42 million tonnes of new textile products in 2022, and that the average cost per clothing item reached £16.70 in 2023. Brand and retailer signatories collected over 45,000 tonnes of used textiles through take-back schemes, up 60% since 2019.
Charity shops and donation income
WRAP’s textiles resource hierarchy page says 53% of charity-collected textiles are sold in stores or online. It also reports that one in ten clothing purchases in the referenced previous year were secondhand. Charity retailers accounted for 37% of secondhand clothing purchases, compared with 41% for commercial retailers and 18% for online resale platforms.
Reuse Network says around 120 members are in its network across the UK. Its members page also reports that a social media post about duvets and pillows reached more than 860,000 people. Wastesavers, described in a Reuse Network article, diverted 620.7 tonnes of reusable items and recorded more than 300,000 items diverted in 2021–22.
Reuse Network’s commercial partners page says partnerships in 2019 generated around a quarter of a million pounds from John Lewis & Partners donated items. The same page says that partnership prevented 160 tonnes of carbon emissions. These figures relate to the named partnership and year, not to all commercial donations.
Oxfam’s UK shop network has more than 500 shops, according to its most-donated author release. Its Christmas 2019 release says total Christmas sales exceeded £19.3 million, rose 7% year on year, and included an 11% rise in online shop donated-item sales over the nine-week festive trading period. The release also describes that high-street Christmas sales week as the highest since 2011 and says the increase raised an extra £1.28 million—enough, according to Oxfam, to provide clean water for more than 1.2 million people in an emergency.
Oxfam’s annual report 2024/25 records donated income of £84.5 million, down from £85.9 million in 2023/24. The report says five of its lowest-performing shops closed in 2024/25. Separately, Oxfam’s charity shop donations page says Gift Aid can raise 25% more when donated items sell.
Jobs, volunteers, and infrastructure
The scale of charitable recycling depends on the places where people can donate and buy. The Charitable Reuse Australia impact report counts more than 3,000 charity and social enterprise retailers and more than 10,000 charity bins, alongside over 5,300 jobs and 33,500 volunteers. Volunteer time is reported at 9.2 million hours per year.
The Salvation Army’s SATCoL network gives a UK textile example: 9,000 clothing banks and over 240 charity shops support the collection and movement of clothing. Its reported volume of more than 250 million items put to good use annually shows why collection infrastructure matters alongside household participation.
The Salvation Army’s spring-clean campaign release says that, in spring 2014, its collection accepted clothing, shoes, handbags, belts, bed linens, and blankets through clothing banks and door-to-door bags. The campaign’s accepted categories show the breadth of items that may enter a charity reuse stream, but the release does not provide a total weight or item count for that campaign.
These figures point to a practical distinction for anyone donating: a donation may support reuse, resale, material recycling, or recovery depending on condition and demand. Reported totals can therefore refer to different stages of the pathway. Checking the charity’s current acceptance rules helps keep usable items out of general waste and reduces contamination in donation collections.