Kitty Norwell/Oxfam

Racks of donated clothes at our Batley distribution hub

Donate clothes by post

Ready to raid your wardrobe? Order your free Oxfam donation bag to fill with your pre-loved clothes and accessories.

Where your donation goes

Drop that coat, pair of jeans or top off at your nearby Oxfam shop and there's a good chance it will sell there. But what if it doesn't?

At Oxfam, we work hard to find a new use for every item of clothing you generously donate to us – all thanks to our specialist teams and volunteers, partners, and our busy sorting warehouse in Batley, West Yorkshire.

Find your local Oxfam shop

What happens if your donations don't sell in your local Oxfam shop?

Our trained volunteers and staff sort and price every item you donate to make as much money as possible.

And even if an item doesn't sell in your local shop, we can still raise funds from it in one of the following ways.

Photo: Gabi Torres / Oxfam

1. Another Oxfam shop

If you donate something unique or special, like a vintage dress, we'll make sure it goes to the Oxfam shop where it's most likely to sell.

Kitty Norwell/Oxfam

2. Oxfam's Online Shop

You might see your pre-loved clothing listed on our online shop or on an online marketplace like eBay, opening up your donation to a wider audience.

Photo: Sam Baggette / Oxfam

3. Oxfam's Festival Shops

Your clothes could end up at Glastonbury, or one of our many pop-up shops that we run throughout the summer in the UK.

Photo: Amber Ahmad / Oxfam

4. Oxfam's recycling partners

Our recycling partners collect clothes, textiles, books and bric-a-brac from across the country and give new life to unsold stock.

Photo: Natalie Argent / Oxfam GB

5. Oxfam's Batley Recycling Centre

Your clothes and textiles are taken to Oxfam's recycling plant in Batley, where our experts sort them by hand to maximise reuse and minimise textiles sent to landfill.

Damaged or low-grade items can be sold to recycling traders and transformed into new products, such as car soundproofing or mattress stuffing.

The first permanent Oxfam shop opens on Broad Street in Oxford six years after the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief was established.

A black and white photo of an Oxfam shop in the 1940s in Oxford

A long history of giving clothes a second life

Oxfam has been reusing and reselling items since the 1940s, when the first Oxfam Shop opened.

Then, in 1974, Oxfam became the first national charity to develop its own facility for recycling and reusing clothes – helping to reduce the number of clothes that go to landfill.

Oxfam’s Batley warehouse and partners now handle 12,000 tonnes of textiles every year from donations to Oxfam.

Why is Oxfam raising awareness about sustainable fashion?

Tackling poverty and inequality means addressing the causes and impacts of climate change.

That's why Oxfam is helping people understand how the fashion industry affects both the environment and the communities most vulnerable to its effects.

Fashion's impact on people and planet

4% of global CO2 emissions are caused by the clothing and apparel industry. The fashion industry produces 20% of all global wastewater.
In the UK, we buy more clothing per person than any other country in Europe.
People who have contributed least to climate change are being hit hardest by its effects, such as droughts and floods.
Fast fashion thrives on low prices and that usually involves low wages, especially for women.

More about climate justice

Mannequin with jacket including words 'Actions speak louder than words", on display during visit of upcycling students from Leeds Beckett university at Batley on 12th June 2025. Photo: Natalie Argent/Oxfam GB

How can buying clothes from Oxfam help the environment?

By buying and wearing second-hand clothes, we can help reduce demand for new clothing and lower the fashion industry's impact on the environment.

Manufacturing a new pair of jeans has the same impact in terms of emissions as driving 60 miles in a petrol car.
If every adult in the UK bought one pair of second-hand jeans instead of a new pair each year, it could save the equivalent of more than 3 billion car miles' worth of emissions from jeans manufacturing. That's the same as flying around the world more than 365 times.

Let’s make reusing clothes the new normal.

Shop Oxfam online

Where does money Oxfam raises from second hand clothes go?

Money that Oxfam raises through the sale of second hand clothes helps to fund Oxfam’s work tackling the injustices that fuel poverty around the world. This includes supporting communities hardest hit by the climate crisis.

These funds enable Oxfam to work with partners and communities around the world to:

Respond fast when emergencies hit, supporting people to uphold their rights and be resilient to future crises.
Speak up against the injustices that fuel poverty and inequality, such as undervaluing and mistreating informal workers like those in fashion supply chains.
Support activists around the world fighting the injustice of climate change.
Campaign for sustainable economic policies that can halt rising temperatures, promote fair trade, and create an economy that encourages people to make conscious choices by opting for second-hand clothes over fast fashion.

What Oxfam works on