The tender was opened on 27 August 2026 and closed on 11 September 2026.
The contract was due to run from November 2026 to March 2029, with a possible extension to 2031, and had an estimated value of £100,001 excluding VAT.
It follows continued strain on the textiles industry, with many merchants starting to charge local authorities for collections from Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs).
A Devon County Council spokesperson said: “We were disappointed to not receive any bids for our recent textile procurement exercise and are currently reviewing our options.”
Devon reportedly has no local merchants or merchants located close enough with the scale of operations to handle a council contract.
The second-hand textiles sector has faced tough economic conditions in recent years.
The industry is being flooded by “ultra-fast fashion” which has reduced the quality of second-hand clothing, while at the same time increasing supply.
Traditionally in the UK, second-hand clothing is sold to “collector, sorter and processor” merchants.
The clothing is then usually graded by quality to be sent for reuse in secondary markets in Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia.
Items which cannot be sold overseas are discarded as waste via landfill or incineration.
However, the low value of ultra-fast fashion items has undermined this system, with overseas exporters no longer as interested in low-grade textiles coming from the UK.
At the same time, end markets such as those in Eastern Europe and the Middle East have been disrupted due to ongoing geopolitical tensions.
Most recently, the Environment Agency introduced strict new rules around the export of used textiles, meaning merchants are having to dedicate extra resources to sorting processes.
The situation has seen textiles merchants cutting prices and collections across the sector, including the implementation of gate fees for HWRC collections – which tend to be the lowest quality.
The reduction has also led to an increase in fly tipping at textile banks as merchants struggle to keep up with collections.
View our more detailed textiles price index here.
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