The battle over the volumes of Chinese clothing entering the European market was brought to an end this week, when the Chinese exporters and EU officials came to a truce, allowing impounded clothing into the EU.
”The problem is not to do with the quantity of clothes coming into the country, it is the quality.“
– Terry Ralph, Textile Recyclers Association
Terry Ralph, president of the TRA, said the potential flood of Chinese clothing into the UK market will bring problems for textile recyclers because of the quality of the clothing, some of which is likely to be handed in for recycling.
Mr Ralph explained: “The problem is not to do with the quantity of clothes coming into the country, it is the quality. It is only economically viable to recycle good quality clothing, it is not viable to do this with poor quality.
“If original clothes are poor quality, when they are donated to a charity shop or placed in a local authority textile bank there are not enough recoverable clothes. This is down to cheaper and cheaper clothing coming into the UK from China and eventually ending up as second hand clothing,” he added.
The issue of quality for textile recyclers was also brought up by charity Oxfam this week, which said on BBC Radio that charities are facing millions of pounds in costs associated with the management of donated clothing or equipment that is stained or damaged.
Competition
In recent years textile recyclers have also faced the problem that cheap imports of clothing from places like China bring undermining charity shops selling second hand UK clothing.
But Mr Ralph said he believes the UK public will eventually be prepared to pay the extra amount for better quality clothing. He said: “I believe that the quality of donations will improve, in the end people will buy better clothing because they realise that shoddy clothing will not last.”
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The “bra wars” conflict arose because imports of Chinese clothing were limited by the EU to a growth of 12.5% per year between 2005 and 2007. Importers panicked and rushed to bring Chinese goods into the EU as soon as possible.
A solution has now been found with the EU allowing importers to dip into next year's quota to bring in the clothing currently left in limbo.
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