What happens to the items of clothing, household textiles and paired shoes after Centre ventures collect them?
Centre ventures believe first optimum solution is to re-use those clothes items somewhere in the world for re-wear but, however if condition is not suitable, then they will be directed to the specialised re-spinning and pulling mills in the North of England, Asia and East Africa for recycling or sold on to local businesses for industrial wiper cloth manufacture.
We are pro-active in seeking new markets for all our recyclables.
When a bag of used clothing and shoes is opened by one of our graders at centre ventures they will make individual determinations on each item in the bag.
From this initial sort, items will be placed on the correct belt operatives break the clothing down into definitive grades. The first of these is usually the recycling grade which would include most items unfit for re-wear.
Cottons unsuitable for re-wear are mostly sold to local businesses involved in the manufacturing of industrial wiping and polishing cloths.
The next grading operation is usually a separation of the light weight and heavier winter clothing for different climates around the world.
At this point also, all trousers and shirts are hand sorted on their own dedicated conveyor and table system before being machine strapped into packs of ten prior to baling.
Depending on which country and climate the clothes are most suited to, they will then be either fine graded on a table or go through another conveyor system for final sort.
Specially trained conveyor belt operatives at this point will hand pick each item and place it in the correct sorting bin.
Shoes and handbags are sorted in yet another department of the factory where they are initially paired up and then categorised into different grades.
Finding all the pairs can sometimes be difficult (it really helps if charity shops, or public donations ensure shoes are tied or taped together) and different processes are used to minimise wastage in this part of the operation.
Shoes cannot be baled so the finished product is usually shipped in a 30kg polypropylene sack in a specific grade or in a climate dictated mix (winter or summer).
The bales/sacks are loaded onto either deep sea shipping containers for worldwide customers or freighted by road and sea to U.K. and Eastern European locations.
We are fully conversant with all relevant government inspection agencies such as Cotecna or Bureau veritas which are now obligatory for most shipments.
If you would like to find out more please contact us.
