Half of all clothing recycling bins in the Netherlands are illegal, putting licensed collectors at a disadvantage and increasing the risk clothing will be dumped abroad, the Financieele Dagblad reported.

Most local councils appoint one collector of clothing, either the Salvation Army or a licensed waste processor. In practice, bins owned by a variety of collectors have been appearing, which is illegal, waste collection services association NVRD told the paper.

The association also accuses the illegal bin owners of removing the most valuable items from the piles and dumping the rest in the legal bins. “The textile stream is barely profitable as it is because of the substandard quality of the clothing,” a spokesman said. “And if the best stuff is gone it’s no longer financially viable at all.”

When officials spot an illegal bin, they will get in contact with the owner, fine him or remove the bin, but a lack of police capacity is hampering the efforts, the NVRD said. The association is now contemplating legal action against owners, with the help of police and the environmental inspectorate.

Reshare, which has 1400 bins and is operated by the Salvation Army, said illegal bins are eating into their profits.

High on the NVRD’s illegal collectors list is Second Life Textiles, with some 250 bins. Owner Fons van Herpen denied any wrongdoing, saying his company makes deals with individual parties, such as football clubs and supermarkets to place his bins on their premises.

The second-hand textile trade has been in trouble for some time. The price of second-hand clothing from the Netherlands dropped by more than 30% in the first half of 2024, with exporters blaming the rise of ultra-fast fashion from China and the loss of the Ukrainian and Russian markets.