Recycling
It is currently impossible to submit clothes for recycling to municipal collections (except for some individual municipalities). Private or non-profit operators, such as Myrorna and Humanbridge, take care of donated clothes. The company I:co is the in-store collection company for several major chains.
The clothes that are handed in for reuse and recycling, whether at recycling centres or in shops, are generally sorted into the following categories:
- The clothes we can sell in second-hand shops in Sweden. About 20% belong to this group.
- Clothes we can sell in other countries, often developing countries like Africa. The clothes are packed in bales and sold to market traders who resell them in local markets. We export over 70% to other countries, and 55% is reused abroad.
- Torn clothes, dirty or unfit for sale, are incinerated or used for rags, padding and insulation.
More effective technology is needed to recycle old clothes into new fibres. The recycling company I:co states that the figure is currently around 0.1% of the clothes collected.
Problem Recycling
The amount currently recycled into new textiles is around 0.1%. This slow development is because the technology does not exist to recycle effectively on a large, industrial scale. One material we recycle into new textiles is PET bottles.
We can recycle textiles either mechanically or chemically. In mechanical recycling, the material is cut, torn and carded to make new yarn, resulting in short, poor-quality fibres that we must mix with a high proportion of new fibres. In chemical recycling, the textiles are dissolved or melted to make new fibres.
However, from an environmental perspective, none of the recycling methods can compete with reusing clothes. Still, if the technology develops, there is potential to use more discarded and broken garments and make new materials instead of needing new raw materials.
If you want to read more and follow the whole process, please check out the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation and learn more : Naturskyddsforeningen.se – About the environmental impact of clothes 
