The numbers
Zero Waste Scotland's material flow work puts textile imports into Scotland at around 240,000 tonnes a year, with roughly 131,000 tonnes discarded either in production or after use. Just over half of textiles are reused or recycled, which sounds respectable until you notice the other half is going in the general waste bin.
That bin is the only one it can go in, because no Scottish council collects textiles at the kerbside. What every council does have is a textile bank at each recycling centre, and most towns have charity banks in supermarket car parks.
Zero Waste Scotland's assessment is that textiles and food waste do more environmental damage per tonne than plastic, on carbon, land, water and biodiversity, which is why textiles are one of the five priority sectors in the Circular Economy Strategy.
- Around 240,000 tonnes imported a year
- Roughly 131,000 tonnes discarded
- About 53% reused or recycled
- No kerbside collection anywhere in Scotland
- Textile banks at every council recycling centre
- Higher climate impact per tonne than plastic
Why there is still no textile bin
The Scottish Government asked the question directly. Its consultation on the new household recycling code of practice, which ran from 25 March to 17 June 2025, proposed making kerbside textile collection a statutory council service.
Of the 60 responses, 37% supported it and 53% were opposed or strongly opposed. The objections were practical: the cost to councils of another collection, the space households would need for another container, contamination when textiles get wet, and the difficulty of running it across rural and island areas. The government has said impact assessments follow before anything is decided.
The other obstacle is what happens after collection. Scotland does not yet have the infrastructure to reprocess many textile types, so a kerbside bin would mostly be feeding export markets that are already saturated with fast fashion. Zero Waste Scotland's honest line is that preventing textile waste matters more than collecting it.
Bags of clothes from a clear-out?
We separate what's wearable for reuse and the rest goes for recycling, not the residual load.
What the 2026 strategy plans
The strategy published on 24 March 2026 commits to a product stewardship plan in 2026 covering clothing and household textiles, along with mattresses and furniture, over the following five years. Stewardship means producers taking responsibility for what happens to a product at the end of its life, as packaging producers now do.
For textiles the options being examined include take-back obligations on retailers, fees that fund collection and sorting, and standards that make garments easier to reuse and recycle. Zero Waste Scotland published three reports on textile product stewardship to inform the plan.
None of it is in force. For the next few years the routes for a bag of clothes are the ones that exist today.
What to do with textiles now
Wearable clothes go to a charity shop or a charity bank; what nobody takes, and how to donate well, is in how to donate unwanted items. Worn-out clothes, odd socks, torn sheets and old towels go in the textile bank at the recycling centre, which sends them for rag and fibre recovery rather than the bin. Wet or mouldy textiles are general waste.
Duvets and pillows are usually refused by textile banks and charities; how to dispose of an old duvet covers the alternatives. Carpets are a separate stream again and are handled under carpet removal.
On a clearance, textiles are one of the streams we pull out. A house clearance after a bereavement typically produces wardrobes of clothing in good condition, and a student flat clearance in June produces bin bags of it; in both cases what is clean and wearable goes for reuse and the rest goes for recycling rather than into the residual load. Landlords clearing a void between tenants get the same treatment under landlord clearance.
