Thinking about tossing your ripped and stained clothes? The city wants them

Kendra Seguin · CBC News

· Posted: Jul 17, 2025 1:22 PM EDT | Last Updated: 7 hours ago

More than 9,000 kilograms of Londoners' aged clothing, linens and different textiles are connected their mode to being sorted and fixed a 2nd beingness done a caller city-run recycling project.

For the past 2 weeks, people have been donating their utilized goods to a textiles donation centre astatine the Goodwill depot successful Byron, including items that are ripped, stained and would different beryllium thrown out. 

Items collected volition past beryllium sorted into things that tin beryllium reused, upcycled oregon wholly breached down into caller unexpected materials, organizer say.

"There whitethorn beryllium a cognition retired determination that [some items] are not worthy to beryllium donated," said Rainer Voigt, the vice president of operations and sustainability astatine Goodwill Ontario Great Lakes.

"If it's a t-shirt you've had, and it's pilled, you mightiness deliberation 'I don't privation to donate it due to the fact that I'm embarrassed due to the fact that it's debased prime oregon something,'" Voigt said. "We are messaging that determination are alternatives for it."

The Worn oregon Torn thrust is co-organized by the City of London, Goodwill Industries and Fanshawe College, who are trying to forestall reusable materials from being tossed successful the garbage. 

Between 3,000 and 6,000 tonnes of textiles spell to London's landfill each year, according to the city's manager of clime change, situation and discarded absorption Jay Stanford. 

"It represents a batch of worldly that could beryllium recovered by Londoners," helium said. 

"Not everyone knows erstwhile thing is reusable oregon recyclable, truthful the intent of our programme is to bring everything to us, including items that are worn and torn, and the determination connected however they're handled adjacent is made by Goodwill," Stanford said, adding that much than 700 radical person brought successful donations truthful far. 

Visiting Goodwill's London sorting facility

After the postulation successful Byron ends, the donations volition beryllium moved to Goodwill's sorting installation successful southbound London, wherever squad members volition abstracted items that are reusable, recoverable and end-of-life. 

"Reusable would notation to things that we would merchantability backmost successful our store. Recoverable are things that, erstwhile we spouse with upcyclers, they tin instrumentality that garment, reconstruct it into thing other and merchantability it again," Voigt explained. 

"End-of-life is precisely what it means … We cannot upcycle it into thing else, we can't merchantability it successful our stores for immoderate reason, truthful the question is what different options are disposable to us?," helium said. 

Clothes tin beryllium breached down and reused done mechanical and chemic recycling processes, Voigt said, and turned into car insulation, integrative h2o bottles and weapon handles, but that tin sometimes beryllium complicated.

"When it comes to recycling textiles, we request to look astatine fabrication and we request to look astatine disrupters connected the garment, truthful the buttons, zippers, patches and labels," helium said. "For example, car insulation has precise circumstantial requirements connected what the feedstock needs to look like. In bid to springiness them what they need, determination is simply a process that we request to spell done successful bid to marque the merchandise arsenic cleanable arsenic possible."

"It would beryllium easier to conscionable flip it into the garbage. That's not what we're doing here," helium said. 

Last edifice options for aged textiles see cutting them to merchantability arsenic rags, oregon bundling ample quantities and sending them to markets overseas, Voigt said, and immoderate items yet extremity up successful the landfill. 

Following the sorting process, Goodwill volition pass the metropolis connected however galore donations were really reused, Stanford said, which volition assistance them determine whether to tally the task successful different neighbourhoods. 

"We're each trying to trim the magnitude of discarded we spot astatine the curb," Stanford said.

Londoners tin proceed donating their utilized textiles to the Worn oregon Torn donation thrust astatine 1570 Oxford St W. until July 20.