During this time please use our kerbside recycling for textiles. Community recycling banks and donation stations won't be emptied, so please don't leave bags beside them as this may cause a mess or delay emptying when the current restrictions lift.

Recycling your textiles from home

Why bin your old clothes and home textiles when it's easy to bag them? You can recycle your clothes and textiles using our kerbside collection service. Alternatively, you can also take textiles and shoes to Community Recycling Centres.

We collect clothes and home textiles weekly as part of our normal kerbside collection service.

Recycling your textiles from home

Step 1) Sort through your wardrobes at home to find any unwanted clothes, shoes and other textiles. We can accept the following items for recycling:

clothes, such as jumpers, jeans and coats
home textiles, such as sheets and towels
pairs of shoes
accessories, such as bags and belts

We can't accept the following items for recycling:

pillows and cushions
duvets

Step 2) Put your unwanted textiles into a plastic carrier bag to keep them dry and label the bag 'textiles'.

All items should be clean.

Step 3) Place your bag of textiles next to your wheeled bin on your collection day.

Please do not put your bag of textiles in your green bin.

If you are having a big clear out, please take your items to a community recycling centre as there is limited space on the collection vehicles.

If you have any questions about recycling textiles in Guildford, please contact us or visit Recycle for Surrey.

What do my clothes become?

Clothes and home textiles are either sorted to be worn and used again in the UK or abroad, or recycled into useful products such as felt, insulation or stuffing.

We will try to recycle textiles wherever possible but Covid-19 has had an effect on the disposal market. This means we may sometimes have to send textiles to an Energy from Waste (EfW) facility.