First-of-its-kind textile recovery bill seeks to establish statewide recycling programs

As a fan of both fashion history and vintage clothing, not a day goes by where I don't daydream about thrifting someone's tattered old coat or beat-up jeans. Recently, I had the chance to bypass the thrift store entirely and go straight to the source: the rag house.

Usually tucked away in industrial zones, rag houses are facilities where discarded and donated clothing goes to be sorted, salvaged, and, hopefully, given a new life. Multi-coloured bales are stacked impossibly high, with floral prints, stripes, plaids, and everything in between pressed into fabric pancakes. The occasional rare gem stands out, but these are few and far between. It's a little surreal, and perhaps the perfect metaphor for our fast-fashion world — potential buried under a lot of excess.

When donating something to charity, most people believe that it's going to someone in need. The reality is that it's more likely to end up in a rag house. Here, clothing is sorted and then directed into one of three streams: turned into rags, baled and shipped overseas, or sold to vintage stores. 

In the world of vintage, access to these facilities is lucrative and typically by invitation only. Most of the people rummaging through the heaps of clothing are young and fashionable resellers competing with each other for old and valuable garments. This admiration for unique vintage pieces exists alongside a heap of similar modern garments that will never make it out of the rag house.

New legislation for a stagnant problem 

According to the David Suzuki Foundation, people consume 80 billion new pieces of clothing each year worldwide — a staggering number. However, a new bill in California addresses the growing issue of textile waste and could change how we dispose of our clothes by placing the responsibility on producers to create recycling systems for their products.

The bill, Senate Bill 707 or the Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024, is the first of its kind in the U.S. It requires producers of apparel, towels, bedding, and upholstery to establish and fund a statewide reuse, repair, and recycling program. Textile companies will need to form a producer responsibility organization that will create collection sites, mail-back programs, and drop-off locations for these items. Non-compliant companies will face penalties.

Details about how the system will work are unclear, since companies have until 2026 to create the organization responsible for designing these solutions. The program itself likely won't be operational until at least 2028.

While the bill marks a significant step forward, its true impact remains to be seen. The road to implementing a large-scale recycling program is long with many hurdles. However, if successful, this legislation could set a new precedent by shifting the burden of waste onto producers and forcing the industry to reconsider its throwaway culture.