What happens to our recycled clothes?

What a great tee-shirt! It puts the message across about recycling!

I have always wanted to know what actually happens to our clothes that we put in the big recycle bins at the recycle unit.

I give my old clothes to charity so someone else can get a good use out of them whether

they want to cut them up and use them as a dog blanket or actually wear them.

The clothes that have stains on them or are ripped and no charity shop would thank you for dropping them at their door I put in the recycle unit. Its always crosses my mind when I drop them in, are they actually going to get put to good use or having a stain on them does that qualify them to go to the land fill.

Each item has to be looked at and checked for the faults, if there reusable they get a tag put on them and then put in large bins where they are then sent off.

If the clothes are totally ruined they get put in a pile where they get cut up and used for rags for cleaning.

This is great and it shows that we really are trying to recycle and help the planet and our wallets, but where do these clothes go once they have been sorted through and separated from the good and the bad. Do they go to our charity shops or do they get sent abroad. I think either way is a great thing because everything has more than one use, but i have never been told.

On the side of the bin where i recycle my old clothes and shoes it never says what the next steps are, and if what i'm doing is actually going to make a difference to someone.

I would like it to be made clearer for people what can be recycled within clothing, whether an old cleaning cloth can be put in and it would make a difference if something is torn to pieces, is that waisting the peoples time who are having to sort through it all or is it actually going to make a difference.

On the side of our domestic recycle bins it states what you can and cant put in so why not do it for clothes, why not tell people who don't already know what a difference putting it in the recycle bin would make to someone else's life.

Why not do adverts on television and make people aware that it is possible to recycle clothes because i certainly know that not everyone knows it is possible to recycle clothes and the possibilities that could come from this.