Unwearable clothes and other surprising things you can recycle

Imagine a world without oozing, toxic landfills or oceans littered with plastic waste. What if, instead of dumping unwanted things in the ground once we’d finished with them, we treated them as resources and turned them into some new item of value?

It’s called the circular economy, and it’s already starting to happen.

Some surprising things that can be recycled. But you can’t just chuck any old thing in the recycling bin. Some things, like batteries, are so toxic they shouldn’t even go in the regular rubbish, as their chemicals can leach into soil and waterways or cause landfill fires. Batteries can be taken to major hardware stores for collection or to local council battery recycling points.

Who knew that soft toys and empty toothpaste tubes can be recycled? They just can’t go in the regular recycling bin. The key is to make sure things end up in a place where they can be processed.

READ MORE:
* How to declutter and just keep the stuff you love and use
* Day in the life of a recycling centre
* The company wanting to turn your old T-shirts into roading

Does your supermarket collect soft plastic? Is there a TerraCycle drop-off point near you? Even easier, check out your local recycling centre to find out what they’ll accept.

Unwearable clothes

“Donated clothes that are still fit for wear can be resold, but like many op shops, you get given some clothes that aren’t really saleable,” says Louise Beuvink, marketing manager at the South Auckland’s Manurewa Community Recycling Centre. Old and unwearable clothes can still be repurposed for a second life. “Collecting them for processing is a way to make sure they’re being responsibly recycled, not just going to landfill.”

“Textiles from fast fashion are a shocker – so many clothes go to landfill,” agrees Daniel Barthow, CEO of the Beautification Trust that operates the Recycling Centre and Reuse Store. “We’ve started a partnership with Upparel, an amazing crowd in Penrose, who take any textiles we can’t sell, to shred and make them into new products”

Upparel is a self-funding B-Corp certified business that collects and sorts old and news textiles, donating wearable items to charity partners and upcycling what is unwearable. In partnership with local businesses, Upparel creates new products using recycled textiles, and a fluffy, shredded fabric product that can replace polyester fillings used in mattresses, cushions, bean bags, pet beds and home insulation.

“We’re not creating anything new,” says New Zealand Upparel director Jeff Vollebregt. “We’re just replacing existing products made of plastics and polyesters and cellulose – replacing those with a recycled fibre fabric. And at the end of its life, they can come back to us and be recycled again and again. So it’s a circular product eventually.”

First established in Australia, the company has been operating in New Zealand since December 2022, and so far has collected and diverted over 1.2 million kilograms from local landfills.

Processed fabric textiles are even used as an ingredient in making roads, as well as in building and construction materials.

Old shoes and Tetra Pak cartons

Old shoes are another item that is collected and passed on to recycling partners by the Manurewa Recycling Centre. “They’re pulled apart with the rubber and textile elements used separately to make flooring,” explains Beuvink.

Clean polystyrene, shavers and plastic kitchen wrap can also be dropped off at the centre.

Tetra Pak food cartons are made with a mix of plastics, cardboard, and aluminium, which can make them tricky to recycle. They’re collected by the recycling centre and sent to the company Saveboard in Te Rapa, a suburb of Hamilton. There the cartons are combined with coffee cups and soft plastics and other recycled packaging to make wall panels and other building materials. Each board manufactured by the company saves more than 500 used beverage cartons from landfill.

Soft toys, remote control vehicles and more

Stuffed toys, children’s books that make sounds, handheld electronic games and players, remote control vehicles – these are just some of the unexpected things that can be recycled via The Warehouse’s trial My recycle hub in Mt Roskill, Auckland.

The not-for-profit Terra Cycle has free recycling programmes sponsored by brands and retailers, and pay-to-recycle options where you can recycle everything from razors, coffee capsules and empty toothpaste tubes.

There are many more things we can be recycling – it starts with a bit of imagination.