The circular economy, championed for its emphasis on recycling and reuse, rests on a more practical backbone: the efficient collection, sorting and redistribution of discarded textiles. That system is now under strain, with Ireland’s charity shops facing a surge in lower-quality donations and commercial operators pulling back. Earlier this year, Dublin City Council’s agreement with TRL, the company that manages the city’s textile recycling banks, came to an end. Once a source of income, these collections have flipped: TRL, which previously paid the Council for donated garments, is now being paid to take them away, as global secondhand markets falter…

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