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3471Fed up with tossing worn-out clothes in the trash, a growing group of consumers is taking a bold step: mailing their dead garments back to the brands that sold them.
The message? If you made it, you deal with it.
According to The Guardian, it started with Wendy Ward, a Sheffield-based designer, maker and sustainable fashion activist.
When a threadbare polycotton bedsheet reached the end of its life, she realized she had no good options.
“I purchased this from Sainsbury’s at least 10 years ago,” she wrote in a letter to the retailer’s CEO, Simon Roberts.
“It has served me well. However, I have no sustainable options available for what I should do with it.”
Too damaged to donate, not compostable due to polyester, and useless as a cleaning rag, the sheet would likely be incinerated or dumped overseas if placed in textile recycling.
“As Sainsbury’s is responsible for designing and manufacturing this product, making decisions to use polycotton with no consideration for what could be done once it reaches the end of its life, I have decided to return it to you,” she added.
#TakeItBack Gains Steam
Sainsbury’s response, according to Ward, was a generic note from the executive office.
That’s when she went public. After posting about her protest on Instagram, her followers encouraged her to launch the campaign #TakeItBack.
She created a reusable letter template and asked people to send their unwearable clothes back to retailers.
“It’s an empowering action,” Ward said. “I was wresting back a bit of control as a consumer.”
One reporter who joined the movement mailed her daughter’s torn tights to Marks & Spencer and her kids’ old T-shirts to Uniqlo and H&M. The responses were mixed.
M&S highlighted its sustainability plan. Uniqlo acknowledged the message. H&M and French Connection didn’t respond.
Charity Shops Buckle Under the Pressure
Meanwhile, UK charity shops are overwhelmed with end-of-life textiles. Once a reliable income source, these damaged clothes now cost money to dispose of.
Dawn Dungate, a consultant in textile recycling, said many shops are “having to spend money getting rid of waste textiles.”
Emma King of Weston Hospicecare charity shops said they still get paid for unsold items, but far less than before.
“Ten years ago, we’d get 65p per kilo. Now it’s just 10p,” she said.
Remote charity shops in Cornwall and Devon are hit hardest, often paying to move unsellable items elsewhere or forced to refuse donations.
Naomi Phitidis of Second Life, an independent shop in East Sussex, described a recent “crisis situation” after their rag merchant stopped collecting.
“It’s depressing,” she said. “Making the right choice is so difficult.”
The Hidden Costs of Textile Waste
Nearly all UK used textiles are exported, according to the environmental group Wrap. Of the 469,000 tonnes processed in 2022, about 425,000 tonnes went abroad.
Ward and others are uncomfortable with their waste ending up in countries like Ghana and Pakistan, calling it a form of “waste colonialism.”
Ward, a PhD researcher at Sheffield Hallam University, sees this as a supply chain failure.
The collectors and sorters handling the final stage are being pushed to the brink, losing money and shutting down.
Wrap estimates the UK textile sector spends £88 million annually on processing worn-out clothes.
Fast Fashion’s Role in the Crisis
A 2024 Wrap report blames fast fashion for saturating the market with low-quality items that quickly become worthless.
At Second Life, volunteers remove around 250kg of unsold clothes every two weeks.
Recycling old clothes into new fabric, called fiber-to-fiber recycling, is rare.
Ross Barry of LMB Textiles said it’s more expensive and complicated than just using virgin polyester. “It’s not even at a drop-in-the-ocean stage yet,” he said.
Take-Back Schemes Under Fire
Retailers promote take-back schemes, but activists say they’re mostly for show.
According to The Guardian, a 2023 report by Changing Markets Foundation found that 75% of returned clothes were destroyed, abandoned, or exported.
“Take-back is textbook greenwashing,” said Urska Trunk of the group.
A Push for Policy Change
Ward says it all comes back to responsibility. She supports a policy called extended producer responsibility (EPR), which would force brands to plan for a product’s end of life.
While the EU is moving in that direction, there are no such plans in the UK.
“People think they’re doing a good thing and that their rubbish will be of some use,” Ward said. “But I think your average person would be shocked if they were confronted with the reality.”
A Growing Call for Accountability
As more consumers question where their clothes end up, campaigns like #TakeItBack shine a light on the consequences of throwaway fashion.
The movement may still be small, but it’s raising a big question: If retailers can profit from selling clothes, why can’t they take responsibility when those clothes reach the end of the line?
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