Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of garment recycling offered by retailers; and what regulations and checks of compliance apply to such services.

As announced in the Maximising Resources, Minimising Waste programme on July 28th, we will develop and consult on policy options for reducing textiles waste, including requiring businesses over a certain size to provide a customer take back systems for used textiles.

There is anecdotal evidence that garment recycling schemes can be effective, and we will assess this further as we develop the new policies. As these are voluntary initiatives, there are currently no regulations and checks of compliance that apply to the retailers.

The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) produced a guide for businesses on setting up takeback schemes, funded in part by Defra: Retailer-clothing-take-back-guide-Feb21.pdf (wrap.org.uk).