Will charity shops welcome old socks & underwear as rags?

babyshoes

I know I wouldn't buy someone's old underwear, but I vaguely recall something about charity shops selling them as 'rags'. Am I right in thinking that I should drop off the bag (of clean old underwear and socks) marked as rags? I don't want to chuck them away if the fabric can be recycled into paper or something, but I also don't want to give some poor sod the job of sorting through my old holey pants! I would use them as rags myself but I really don't need any at the moment.

Savvy_Sue

I would phone and check whether the charity shop can sell them on as rags, or not. I suspect that some can and some can't, and the ones that can't will then have to pay for disposal. And you want to phone first because you don't want to be carting bags of old underwear round unnecessarily! :rotfl:

andrealm

I used to be a volunteer at Oxfam and I think they sold on unsellable clothes as rags. But this was a good few years ago so I'm not sure if they still do. Probably best to phone and check.

If a charity shop doesn't want them, sometimes clothing recycling banks accept them, although some of them say no rags.

karen24_2

I think most of the large chains of charity shops accept rags, though I think they prefer them to be separate from the regular donations to save them sorting them out.

babyshoes

Thanks for the replies. I will dump the bag in my car and see if the charity shop near work will accept them, and if not I can phone some of the ones further away. I am lucky to live quite near the high street with several charity shops in a row, so once the snow melts it will be easy enough to take them in.

Iheart2poundcoins

You would be surprised at what people will buy! Underwear would be bought by some people, but yes they can sell them to the 'rag man'.
I used to volunteer for a little charity shop and you would get people coming in asking if you had knickers for sale! And any clothes that just wouldnt sell would get bagged up and sold for X amount to the rag man.