London textile recycler reveals expansion ambitions

Chris Carey's Collections currently brings in used clothes from charity shops and local authorities around London. The company has been based at Finch road in Deptford for the last nine years, but has now outgrown its current site.

” In Germany there is a technology that can turn old textile material into wadding and padding for the inside of mattresses and car doors.“
– Christine Carey
Managing director Christine Carey has been searching for a bigger location which would allow the company to expand its ventures.

“In Germany there is a technology that can turn old textile material into wadding and padding for the inside of mattresses and car doors,” she explained. “I would love to be able to bring this technology over here and do it ourselves, rather than see the country exporting waste textiles out and importing the wadding back in.”

Ms Carey said all that is stopping the company doing so at present is a difficulty in finding a new site. The company aims to stay in Deptford, as its workforce lives locally, but land in the area is hard to come by.

“This area is an exporter of employees, as there are not many businesses and lots of housing. We want to stay local because 70% of our work force walks to work, but housing companies are buying up all of the available space and we can't compete with the money they are prepared to pay,” said Ms Carey.

Space
The company is currently looking at a potential new location at Convoys Wharf, about 10 minutes from its current base. Convoys Wharf, a site on the river Thames, has been set aside for housing needs, but the borough of Lewisham has said that 72,700 square metres will be set aside for employment space.

Half of this space has been designated for river-related activities as well as recycling and reprocessing facilities. Ms Carey said that if the company could set up a facility at this location, it would be possible to “hugely” increase the recycling work it carries out.

“At present we employ 117 people at this site, if we could bring in German technology and not only sort the textiles for sending to Africa and Europe, but also reprocess the clothes that aren't re-useable, we could possibly be employing more than 2,000 staff,” she explained.