If you donate to a clothes bank, where do these clothes end up, and will someone even end up wearing them?

A project called Voice Ireland decided to track some donations, and found that many end up as far away as Africa or Southeast Asia.

Project leader with Voice Ireland Solene Schirrer said that it’s not so much an issue the clothes are ending up in far-fletched places, but more so what is actually being done with them.

“We were getting more and more reports for organisations across many countries in Africa, in Southeast Asia, even in South America,” she told Moncrieff.

“You could see that a lot of the clothes that they were receiving under the label of reusable was actually waste.

“And there was an increasing amount of waste within the bales that they received.

“So, this was the man concern that we had, and the thing is that we didn’t really know what happened in between the time where we put [clothes] in the textile banks and waste arrives within the bales.”

Stacked textile scraps. Image: sondem. 7 March 2019

According to Ms Schirrer, there is currently very little regulation around textile waste.

“There’s no definition of what textile waste is,” she said.

“It really is up to the companies themselves, so if they say, ‘Well, this is reusable,’ and they stamp is as reusable and send it abroad, then there’s nobody that’s going to overlook it.

“So, that’s where we need tighter regulations and standards in terms of what is designated as what, and what needs to be retained in Ireland and to be properly processed as waste.”

'This isn't a charity thing'

Ms Schirrer said items that are donated to clothes banks typically pass through countries within the EU before being moved onto countries in the global south.

However, she said that does not mean the clothes are always donated to those in need.

“This isn’t a charity sort of thing,” she said.

“It’s really companies that make a profit off of these clothes.

“So, they will be sold for either reuse in second-hand markets across the globe, or they will be sold for recycling in places like Pakistan.”

Ms Schirrer said even when clothes make it to recycling plants, it can be difficult to determine what is recyclable, as textiles are much harder to sort than materials such as plastic.

Main image: Overflowing or possibly raided clothing donation bin with garments scattered outside a container in Berlin, Germany. Image: Timothy Shoot. 28 April 2025