When most of us think about recycling clothes, we think “donate it and someone else will use it,” and that’s partly true — but my kids create a fairly steady stream of holey socks, worn-out underwear, and leggings shredded at the knees — which are much tougher to find uses for. I already have as many rags as I need, so I looked into other textile recycling options.
In Saskatchewan (and across Canada), if clothes are still wearable and clean, charities and thrift shops sort them and either give them directly to people who need them or sell them in stores to fund community programs. If it can’t be sold locally, a lot of that clothing gets baled up and exported overseas where there’s some demand for used apparel. A small portion becomes industrial material — think wiping cloths, padding, or insulation — after being sorted and shredded by specialized processors.
The frustrating part: true recycling — turning old fabric into new fabric — hardly exists yet in Canada. That’s because modern textiles are full of mixed fibres, buttons, zippers, and dyes that make recycling both difficult and expensive. Much like tire recycling, the components are so blended together it’s like trying to ‘un-bake a cake.’ Most post-consumer textiles that can’t be resold don’t get recycled into new clothing; they get downcycled into lower-grade products, or they’re shipped abroad where they’ll be sorted again — and sometimes still end up in landfill.
Right now, Canada doesn’t have the infrastructure to take every rag and sock and turn it into new textiles. I found a few specialized programs in Canada that will accept worn textiles and try to recycle them into industrial uses (such as the Return-it and the Salvation Army program in BC), but most municipalities and nonprofits are still dealing with the basics: sorting what can be reused and managing what can’t. Even national estimates show that the majority of discarded textiles either end up in landfill or are only reused once or twice before disposal.
Looking back 20 years, the biggest change has been the growth of charity/thrift infrastructure, and online reselling without a similar revolution in recycling technology. We’re better at collecting and sorting than we used to be, but the system still heavily depends on reuse and export rather than closing the loop. Other recycling streams, like plastics or paper, have seen more obvious progress, largely due to policy and economics: there’s stronger regulation and clearer markets for recycled materials. Textile recycling hasn’t had the same push.
In terms of policy, there are no legislated EPR (extended producer responsibility) programs for textiles in Canada. Saskatchewan’s current EPR efforts focus on things like packaging, electronics, tires, and household hazardous waste. Clothing and textiles haven’t been pulled into that framework — yet. Nationally, Environment and Climate Change Canada has been consulting on strategies to address plastic and textile pollution, and there’s growing interest in circular solutions through initiatives like the Canadian Circular Textiles Consortium, which is working on bringing stakeholders together to improve textile recycling. Canada hasn’t yet mandated producers to take back or manage clothing at end-of-life like the European Union has.
So. for those ratty socks and shredded leggings you really don’t want in the garbage, for now the best bet is still local textile drop-offs that accept all conditions of clothing, like H & M’s collection sites. And in the meantime, it helps to share your experience and push for the kind of producer responsibility that’s finally starting to show up in the national conversation — otherwise, we’ll keep dealing with the same old textile recycling challenges that have existed for years.
