Is recycling old clothes a public good or a business?
Reporter investigates where used clothes are recycled
Motivation for investigation
Every time when it comes to moving, changing seasons, etc., many residents will eliminate a batch of old clothes that they do not wear at home.
For many residents who want to "break up", these old clothes at the bottom of the press box are left to take up space, and it is a bit wasteful to throw them away.
As a result, offline recycling sites and online recycling platforms for used clothes have gradually entered people's field of vision.
It is a good thing that old clothes can be reused.
But people can't help but ask: where do the old clothes go after being recycled?
Can those who claim to be charitable, donated recycling really get old clothes to those who need them?
With these questions, the reporter conducted an investigation and interview.
□ Zhang Shoukun, a trainee reporter of this newspaper
□ Our reporter Han Dandong
A few days ago, Ms. Wang, a resident of Heping District, Tianjin, packed up a large bag of old clothes from her home, weighing more than ten kilograms, and carried them downstairs into the old clothes recycling bin of the community.
"Many old clothes are actually not very old. It is a pity to throw them away, and they may pollute the environment. If they can be disposed of and reused and given to those in need, it is also a good thing." Ms. Wang said that she has at least Hundreds of kilograms of old clothes were put into the old clothes recycling bins in the community.
Looking at the words "donation" and "charity" on the old clothes recycling box, she has always had a question: can these old clothes really be properly disposed of and sent to those who really need them?
Set up recycling bins for used clothes
Someone impersonating a charitable organization
According to public reports, around 2014, all kinds of old clothes recycling bins have sprung up in residential communities all over the country.
In 2019, the Special Committee of the Waste Textile Comprehensive Utilization Alliance of Shandong Circular Economy Association has calculated that there are more than 23,000 waste clothing recycling bins in Shandong, and the member companies of the Waste Textile Special Committee can recycle 300,000 tons of waste clothing every year.
Recently, a reporter from Rule of Law Daily visited more than 30 small and large communities in Beijing and Tianjin, and interviewed residents in Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang and other places and learned that in the city, almost every community can see old clothes. Recycling bins. In some communities, four old clothes recycling bins are placed side by side.
Except for a few of these old clothes recycling bins, which are offline recycling points for old clothes recycling apps, most of the bins are printed with words such as "XX Charity Association", "Donation", "XX Recycling Project", "Ministry of Civil Affairs Record Number" and so on. .
So, are many old clothes recycling bins printed with the words "XX Charity Association" and "Donation" set up by charitable organizations?
The reporter consulted the Tianjin Civil Affairs Bureau and learned that there are two main types of old clothes recycling bins placed in the community. One is the establishment of a charitable organization, which belongs to public fundraising. The name of the organization, the certificate of fundraising qualification, contact information, etc. are printed in a prominent position, and it must also be publicized on the National Charity Information Disclosure Platform (hereinafter referred to as the Charity China Platform); the other is the recycling of old clothes by individuals or enterprises. In the form of commercial garbage classification and paid recycling of old clothes, the boxes put in are not donation boxes, nor are they within the scope of public donations.
The relevant staff of the bureau told reporters that it is easy to identify whether it is a charitable act. The words "environmental protection" and "recycling" on the box are commercial activities, and the words "charity", "love" and "public welfare" are on the box. is a charitable act.
It is understood that there are currently only two used clothing recycling projects carried out in Tianjin in the name of charity.
However, during the investigation, the reporter found that there are at least 5 names of charity projects involved in the box. Only the used clothes recycling project mentioned by the staff before is marked with the name and telephone number of the delivery unit and supervision unit in accordance with relevant regulations. Other recycling The information on the box is only the project name and contact information, and some are not even marked with the recycling destination.
The reporter tried to call the contact numbers left on these boxes. Among the 9 calls, 2 were turned off, 3 were empty, and 3 had been unanswered. The only one got through. Only responsible for installing these boxes, you can contact if you need it.
Some of the recycling bins are printed with the "Washing Clothes" public welfare environmental protection project.
The reporter logged on to the Charity China platform and found that the sponsoring organization of the project was Jiangxi Red Cross Foundation. At the same time, the fundraising progress stated, "This project has not carried out public fundraising activities on any platform or offline. After communicating with the project partners, stop cooperating on the project”.
Meng Chao from Jizhou District, Tianjin has been engaged in the recycling of old items for 5 years, including the recycling of old clothes.
He told reporters that there are two main types of old clothes collected. Those that meet the donation requirements will be donated, and those that do not meet the donation requirements will be used for environmental protection and recycling.
"In fact, it is really used for charity, and the used clothes donated to poor mountainous areas may be less than one-tenth of the total."
"We call all kinds of clothes mixed together 'total goods', and a ton can be sold for about 1,000 yuan. If it is classified or processed, the price will be doubled. For example, a ton of good denim fabrics can be sold for 4,000 yuan. Down and cashmere clothes may cost tens of thousands of yuan per ton. Because of the high profit margins, some traders have used their brains and put some recycling bins in the name of charity in the community, wanting to do business without capital. ."
Meng Chao revealed to reporters that in recent years, people often take old clothes recovered from the community to him to sell, "Basically, I go to each community once a month, open the box and pull the clothes away. It can pull about a ton. In some communities, there are several recycling bins for used clothes, which may all be put away by the same person.”
The reporter searched the e-commerce platform with the keyword "used clothes recycling box" and found that there are many online stores that can professionally customize the used clothes recycling box for charity donation.
One of the customer service told reporters that they have both general-purpose boxes and can also be customized according to the situation of each province or city or individual needs.
Afterwards, the customer service sent a sample of the recycling box printed with "Fujian Province XX Public Welfare Project", with the record number of the civil affairs department on it.
On the Charity China platform, the reporter inquired that there is indeed a public welfare project for recycling old clothes. When the reporter further asked whether individuals or companies could directly use the recycling bins printed with the public welfare project, the other party did not reply clearly.
Store information shows that the store sells more than 100 used clothes recycling boxes per month.
In addition to the old clothes recycling bins set up by counterfeit charitable organizations, the reporter also found in the investigation that the old clothes recycling bins in some communities have been rusted and deformed and turned into garbage bins because they have not been used and managed for a long time.
In some recycling bins, because the box body is damaged, the box door is half open, and a large pile of clothes is exposed inside.
The whereabouts of recycled old clothes are unknown
Reward redemption is tricky
In addition to offline used clothes recycling bins, there are also more and more online used clothes recycling mini-programs and apps.
The reporter searched on a certain platform and found dozens of institutions that can recycle old clothes at home. Among them, the number of "Beluga Whale Recycling Old Clothes" has exceeded 2 million recently, "Shutter Recycling Old Clothes Recycling", "Dangdang Old Clothes Recycling" and so on recently. The number of users exceeds 1 million.
Different from some offline recycling in the name of charity, online used clothing recycling is mostly paid, and many are free door-to-door recycling, no courier fee is charged, and users will be given certain "rewards" after recycling.
Taking "Flying Ants Clothes Recycling" as an example, after the clothing is recycled, an environmental protection certificate will be issued, the Ant Forest energy will be rewarded, and one of the following activities will be rewarded: a cash red envelope of RMB 0.5 per kilogram of clothing recycled, which can be withdrawn; Recycle 1 piece of old clothes to help you donate 100 grams of animal rations to the stray animal rescue station; you can get 50 green beans for every 1 kilogram of clothes recycled, and the green beans can be exchanged for various daily necessities, App members, etc.
During the investigation, the reporter found that there are also some problems with online used clothing recycling.
Not long ago, the reporter placed an order for the recycling of used clothes on a recycling platform, and agreed to pick up the goods at 5 pm, but no one contacted until 6:30 pm. After consulting customer service, I learned that the express delivery is not the platform itself. Instead, it cooperates with other courier companies.
After contacting the courier, the reporter was told that he did not know why the system sent the order to him. If he wanted to pick up the old clothes, he had to wait for him to send the items in hand first.
Later, the time of door-to-door collection was changed again and again, and it was not until the third day that the box of old clothes was successfully sent out.
The reporter packed a total of 11 pieces of spring and summer clothes and a pair of shoes, and weighed the weight before sending it out, which showed that it was 3.8 kilograms.
The courier did not weigh the old clothes when they took them away, but the order page showed that the recycling weight was 10 kilograms and the courier fee was 42 yuan (bought by the recycling platform).
Subsequently, the reporter reported the matter to the platform customer service, who said that there would be someone responsible for the settlement of the freight.
On the recycling tracking page, the reporter can only see the process of the old clothes sent from the express station to the warehouse of the recycling platform, and it is unknown how to deal with the old clothes in the future.
During the investigation, the reporter found that this kind of situation is common whether it is online or offline recycling of used clothes, especially offline used clothes recycling. It is not clear where it went or who took it away.
In addition to the recycling link, the reward redemption link after online recycling is also tricky.
In February this year, Mr. Yin from Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province sent 5kg of idle clothes through an online used clothes recycling platform, exchanged a 20 yuan gift certificate, and exchanged the gift certificate for a 1kg bottle of laundry detergent. To this day, the platform has been refusing to deliver goods on the grounds that there is an epidemic in Suzhou, while other couriers have already delivered normally.
After checking the evaluation information, Mr. Yin found that there are many users who have encountered similar problems to him.
In May of this year, Ms. Xiao from Wuhan City, Hubei Province completed an old clothes recycling order on an old clothes recycling app. The order reward page showed that she could get a 52 yuan cash red envelope.
After Ms. Xiao chose to withdraw, the money was delayed.
In the meantime, Ms. Xiao tried to contact the online customer service, and also called the manual customer service number, but to no avail.
Regular public fundraising
Improve the process and strengthen supervision
On March 17 this year, the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued the "Reminder on Prohibiting Organizations or Individuals Not Qualified for Public Fundraising from Carrying out Waste Clothes Recycling in the Name of Charity", emphasizing that only charitable organizations with public fundraising qualifications can carry out public fundraising activities.
If a charitable organization finds that it is using the name of the organization fraudulently, it shall issue an announcement in a timely manner to clarify the facts and report the situation to the relevant local authorities to safeguard its own legitimate rights and interests.
In reality, why does the behavior of recycling old clothes in the name of charity and consuming other people's love persist for a long time?
According to Meng Qiang, a professor at Beijing Institute of Technology Law School, this is due to interests.
"Some companies or individuals are clearly engaged in the profit-making behavior of recycling old clothes, but they package themselves as charitable acts of donating old clothes, and even use the love of residents to defraud donated clothes under the guise of the civil affairs department."
In 2020, the "Report on Inspection of the Implementation of the Charity Law of the People's Republic of China" issued by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress pointed out: "In the more than four years since the law has been implemented, 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) across the country have rarely implemented administrative procedures in accordance with the Charity Law. Punishment, most of the cities with districts have been 'zero punishment' for four years. The inspection found that the administrative supervision of some grass-roots competent departments is not in place."
Meng Qiang said that this kind of counterfeiting should be intervened by the counterfeited civil affairs department or the clues should be forwarded to the relevant law enforcement departments, and the market supervision department and the public security management department should also supervise. If a crime is constituted, the judicial organs should intervene and punish them.
In addition, the Charity Law stipulates that charitable organizations qualified for public fundraising shall regularly disclose their fundraising and implementation of charitable projects to the public.
If the public fundraising period exceeds six months, the fundraising situation shall be disclosed at least once every three months, and the fundraising situation shall be fully disclosed within three months after the end of the public fundraising activity.
However, after inquiring on the charity China platform, the reporter found that some old clothes recycling activities in the name of charity were not published in a timely manner and were unclear. description of the situation".
In contrast, the fundraising progress of the "Old Clothes Recyclable" project initiated by the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation is clearly recorded - "On December 15, 2021, China Green Development Association's "Old Clothes Recyclable" The Recycling' project donated 100 military coats and 100 sets of silk quilts to the Shayang County Rural Welfare Institute, Hubei Province, worth more than 26,000 yuan." There are more than a dozen records with clear dates and clear clothing from June 2020 to the present.
In the interview, many citizens expressed their willingness to donate old clothes, but hope that the relevant departments can standardize the recycling process of old clothes, so as not to let their goodwill become someone else's business, and also hope that regardless of online or offline, recycling The detailed whereabouts of old clothes can be announced in a timely manner on relevant apps and websites.
The reporter consulted the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Tianjin Civil Affairs Bureau on this matter and learned that the clean-up and rectification of used clothing recycling bins has been ongoing.
With the development of society and economy, there is less and less demand for the recycling of old clothes in impoverished mountainous areas. Many charity projects filed by the Ministry of Civil Affairs have expired. In the future, the recycling of old clothes may be carried out by related enterprises. The obsolete old clothes recycling bin will also be gradually cleaned up.
"Whether it is charitable donation of used clothes or recycling of used clothes, it involves various issues such as garbage collection, disinfection and cleaning, environmental protection, etc. In the recycling of used clothes, there is also the issue of consumer rights protection when selling used clothes. Therefore, Subjects engaged in related behaviors should abide by laws and regulations, operate legally and compliantly, and contribute to my country's environmental protection, resource conservation, waste utilization, and charity donation." Meng Qiang said.