Clothing recycling Toronto: 4 routes for old clothes

The blue bin does not take clothes. Toronto's own recycling page lists clothes, shoes, bedding and curtains among the items it refuses, read 20 September 2026. It sends you to donation instead, and there are four routes below.

Quick facts

• 17 kg of clothing and textiles leave the average Toronto household each year, per toronto.ca
• 837 clothing drop box permits sit on the City register, 474 of them with no cancellation date
• 290 of those 474 are non profit permits and 184 are for profit
• 0 of the City's drop off depots accept textiles
• 6 months a year, April to September, Community Environment Days take clothing and linens
• 2 shops named here take sellers without an appointment

Sell it first

Common Sort. Buys at 760 Queen Street East, 1414 Queen Street West and 527 Bloor Street West, all open 11am to 7pm Monday to Saturday. It pays in store credit, never cash, and refuses jewellery, men's suiting, children's clothes and household goods.

VSP Consignment. 1410 Dundas Street West, and its consignment page says you need no appointment to see a specialist. It takes designer bags and accessories all year, pays by cheque or store credit, and collects across the GTA.

Seven more consignment shops, with the rates one of them publishes for cash, credit and consignment, are in the Toronto consignment list.

Give it away

Diabetes Canada takes gently used clothing and household items through Value Village, per its donation page. The same page runs a free home collection and a bin finder. Its 27 live City permits make it the fifth biggest bin holder on the register.

Community Environment Days accept clothing, footwear, accessories and linens for reuse. That programme runs from April to the end of September.

Check the sticker before you fill the bin

Every clothing drop box in Toronto needs a City permit for its exact spot, under Chapter 395 of the municipal code, and the sticker goes on the box. The open data register, refreshed 3 September 2026, holds 837 permits. 474 carry no cancellation date: 290 non profit, 184 for profit.

The four largest holders of live permits are Oasis Clothing Bank with 130, AMJ Recycling with 109, B'nai Brith with 79 and JACS Toronto with 46.

184 of the 474 permitted clothing bins in Toronto belong to for profit operators.

Mend it before you bin it

The City runs Sewing Repair Hubs with four partners: Progress Place, Scadding Court Community Centre, Delta Family Resource Centre and The Neighbourhood Organization. Its waste reduction page describes them as workshop space for repairing clothes and textiles.

The City's drop off depots take no textiles at all. Their accepted list covers renovation waste, electronics, metal, yard waste and mattresses.

For shops that sell used clothes rather than buy yours, read the Toronto thrift note.

Common questions

Where can I recycle old clothes in Toronto?

Not in the blue bin and not at a City drop off depot, because neither accepts textiles. Use a permitted clothing drop box, a Community Environment Day between April and September, or a charity collection.

Where can I sell my clothes in Toronto?

Common Sort pays store credit at three shops and VSP Consignment takes designer bags at 1410 Dundas Street West. Seven more are in the Toronto consignment list.

What do I do with clothes too worn to wear?

Repair them. The City runs Sewing Repair Hubs with four partners, Scadding Court Community Centre among them. The City pages read on 20 September 2026 point to donation and reuse, and name no fibre recycling stream.

Sources

Read on 20 September 2026: toronto.ca on blue bin items, on waste reduction, on drop off depots and on Community Environment Days. Read the same day: the City open data register of clothing drop box permits, refreshed 3 September 2026, and the sites of Common Sort, VSP Consignment and Diabetes Canada. The 474 and 184 counts come from that register file, counting rows with an empty cancellation date.