How to sort your end-of-life textile waste:
1. Container for end-of-life textile waste
The container for end-of-life textile waste is intended for clean and dry but no longer serviceable fabrics, such as torn clothes and other textiles:
- coats, jackets, trousers, skirts and shirts
- bedlinen, towels and tablecloths
Pack them in a plastic bag and close it tightly. Drop this plastic bag off at a waste station or RE-point free of charge. Please, no more than 100 litres per visit, which is about three full grocery bags or half a black refuse sack.
2. Combustible waste
- Non-recyclable textiles in poor condition: ones that are dirty, smelly, damp, mouldy or contain pests
- Textiles made from non-recyclable materials: shoes, accessories, underwear, socks, tights, rugs, mats, pillows and cushions, quilts and duvets, soft toys
Textiles that are in poor condition and/or made from non-recyclable materials cannot be recycled for hygiene reasons, or because they are not suitable for the recycling process.
3. Reuse
Clothes that are clean and usable, but which you no longer need or want, should be recycled for reuse. You can donate them, for example, to charity collections or sell them at a flea market.
How is end-of-life textile waste processed?
Municipal waste management companies such as Lakeuden Etappi organise the collection and pre-sorting of household post-consumer textile waste. Pre-sorting is the process of separating incorrectly sorted and non-recyclable textiles. Textiles that cannot be recycled will be sorted into combustible waste and transported to a waste-to-energy plant.
In Lakeuden Etappi’s area of operation, end-of-life textiles are transported from waste stations to A-Pesti Oy for processing. There products that can be reused as they are are picked out and non-recyclable textiles are sent to incinerators.