The Textile Recycling Association (TRA) celebrated its centenary last week (12 February) with a reception at the Houses of Parliament. Among attendees were the Right Honourable Tracey Crouch MP and representatives from WRAP and Oxfam.
The TRA is an industry association for businesses and charities engaged in the collection and distribution of second-hand clothing and textiles. It was founded in 1913 and has played an ‘active role’ in the Sustainable Clothing Roadmap (SCR), a government-backed strategy to improve the sustainability of the British clothing industry, now run by WRAP.
At the reception last week, Crouch praised the TRA on its work to combat thefts from clothing banks and door-to-door collections which costs charities ‘millions of pounds in lost revenue every year’, stating that some businesses had gone into receivership in part due to thefts.
“People need the understanding and confidence that when they are putting out their clothing or recycling for charity, they have the knowledge that they are doing so for genuine collectors and genuine charities”, she said.
The delegates also heard from Mervyn Jones, Head of Products and Materials at WRAP, who said that the two organisations were now working together to ‘establish new markets, close the textile recycling loop and secure and create additional jobs in the industry’. He further added that it was his belief that membership within the TRA was ‘essential’ to WRAP’s efforts of engaging with textile and clothing reclamation businesses and continuing the successes of the SCR.
New Director
At the celebrations, the TRA also appointed Alan Wheeler, member of WRAP’s Sustainable Clothing Roadmap Action Plan Steering Committee and previous TRA National Liaison Manager, as new Director of the organisation.
Speaking at the event, Wheeler said he was “delighted and honoured” at the appointment and looked forward to “working with the TRA membership and wider industry stakeholders to secure new markets and jobs and promote further collections in a transparent manner”.
Despite difficult economic circumstances, representatives voiced cautious optimism at the state of the industry, citing the increase in the number of major retail chains launching clothing recycling drives (such as H&M working with the Red Cross and M&S working with Oxfam for its ‘Shwopping’ initiative) as a positive step for the industry.
According to the TRA, rather than being a ‘threat’, these programmes have led to new business opportunities for its members.
After facing stiff competition from Asian markets, the UK textile industry has recently experienced something of a revival. In 2012 Business Secretary Vince Cable pledged government support for the sector, saying he believed it held great potential.
However, a report released last week (14 February) by Friends of the Earth Europe, found that more work had to be done to improve textile recycling, as in 2012 the UK landfilled 31 per cent (350,000 tonnes) of used clothing, recycling just 14 per cent.
Read more about the Textile Recycling Association.
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How will the government and DMOs address the challenges of including glass in DRS while ensuring a level playing field across the UK?
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