“It is important that we monitor the situation closely as we don’t want huge volumes of unwanted clothes just piling up on our islands with nowhere to go.” – Rebecca Smith, Sustainability Lecturer at UHI North, West and Hebrides.

Around 300,000 tonnes of textile waste is burned or land filled in the UK every year. While many people take unwanted clothes to Charity shops or re-sell them online, that only deals with a small proportion of the problem, which is in reality being passed on to others.

Island authorities have fewer options in dealing with waste. Rebecca Smith, Sustainability Lecturer at UHI North, West and Hebrides brought together regional partners to press for urgent, scalable solutions to prevent a growing textile waste crisis. 

Thousands of tonnes of textile waste – an estimated equivalent of ten lorry-loads per year – previously left the Western Isles, but in 2025 that route disappeared.

At the end of 2025, a meeting was held at the UHI North, West and Hebrides Stornoway campus to explore these issues and establish shared concern about rising volumes of unwanted clothing on the islands.

Attendees included representatives from the Municipal Services; Zero Waste Western Isles; and Charity and Voluntary sector groups from all over the Western Isles including Cothrom, the Uists Council of Voluntary Organisations, and Bethesda Hospice.

Other interested organisations engaged with the discussions, including Highlands and Island Enterprise; Community Energy Scotland; the Island Centre for Net Zero; Carbon Neutral Islands and Climate Hebrides.

The urgent need to identify additional solutions that can support the voluntary sector to deal resourcefully with the huge volume of unwanted clothes accumulating throughout the Outer Hebrides was the key takeaway from the discussions.

There is concern that unwanted clothes may increasingly end up in residual waste streams and landfill, contributing to tonnages that will eventually show up through landfill taxes.

Sustainability Lecturer at UHI North, West and Hebrides, Rebecca Smith said:

“Local waste management services are increasingly concerned by the volume of textiles that now fall outside viable recycling pathways, placing additional pressure on local disposal routes.

“Additionally, the third sector is becoming increasingly responsible for managing a huge volume of clothing waste, but not always with the necessary support in place to find scaled-up solutions that can effectively deal with the volumes involved.

“It is clear more funding and direction is needed to support efforts across island groups, towards a regional approach that provides a reliable and permanent solution that can match the scale of the huge volumes of clothing involved.

“It is important that we monitor the situation closely as we don’t want huge volumes of unwanted clothes just piling up on our islands with nowhere to go.

“We’re continuing to explore the issues here at the college campus, using sectoral funding from UHI’s Knowledge Exchange Land and Communities Fund to assess the potential of localised educational and enterprise-orientated solutions that can support the voluntary sector and potentially create some local employment.”

According to WRAP, in many cases, perfectly wearable clothes are discarded. The volume of textile waste has remained stubbornly high, despite growing awareness.

In the article, “Environmental impact of open burning of polyester and cotton textile waste: a comparative analysis,” published in Springer on 8 March 2026, Bayramova et al. state:

“Our analysis estimates that between 10 and 20 Mt (medium 15 Mt) of textile waste is burned annually across 137 countries, with polyester burning alone contributing 8.3 to 24.6 Mt of fossil carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions.”

Polyester clothing will take 200 years to decompose.

“As they do, they release methane and shed microplastics into soil and water. Even natural fibres, if sent to landfill, emit greenhouse gases during decomposition.” – Carbon Copy

Most unwanted clothes begin their journey in household bins or clothing donation points. What happens next varies:

• Items in black bins often go straight to landfill or incineration
• Clothes donated to charity shops are sorted; those in poor condition may be sold on to recyclers or sent abroad
• Textile banks and collection schemes aim to recover usable material, but not all donations are reused

One common misconception is that donated clothes are always reused locally. In reality, many are exported, sometimes ending up in overseas landfills or informal markets with poor waste management.

There are several initiatives in Orkney for dealing with unwanted clothes through Care and Repair schemes, charity shop donations, and Make and Mend through the Orkney Library. Recently the Orkney News also published articles about imaginative uses of textiles:

“The Kindred Course has been an invaluable experience.” Success for Orkney Graduates

All positive contributions to the growing problem of discarded textiles. It will be interesting to see what Orkney can learn from the monitoring being conducted in the Western Isles and what solutions might be put forward.

Fiona Grahame

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