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' The A-Z List '
of house-to-house clothing collectors

Headings on this page :

Notes

First, can you help ? . . .

computer scanner

We'd welcome information on other collectors you've come across, so they can be added to the list below - see Contact us.

It would be useful too if you could :

• give some idea of where (and when) the collection took place
• provide some information about the leaflet or bag
• attach an image of the leaflet or outer bag (if you have the time) - eg using a scanner (or camera).

Of course, we'll treat your contact details as confidential.

. . . And remember, the best way of discouraging misleading or bogus collections is to take your donations to a CHARITY SHOP.

Also, on average, over 40 times more money is raised for charity if you take the goods to a charity shop (compared with a collection which pays a 'royalty' to the charity of around £75 per tonne of clothes).

Where do I find information on clothing collectors on this website?

We've put the information dealing with specific collectors in three places on the website, as follows:

1. A-Z List of clothing collectors page    =this is the page you're now looking at  
   We also refer to this as the "A-Z collectors List" - or just the "A-Z List" for short.
   Arguably it's the "centre" of the website - and the page that's used most often.
   This list gives brief (summary) information on all the collectors we know about.
   There are over 240 collectors and charities listed - with their status, location, website etc.
   It includes adjudications by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
   It's presented as a table (3 columns and lots of rows).
   There are no images of leaflets or bags on this page (to save space).
2. Clothing collectors: A selection (A-Z) page
   When we've got images of collection leaflets or bags and/or more-detailed information about a collector, we put these images and information on this "Selection (A-Z) " page.  This supplements the summaries given in the "A-Z List" (table) above.
3. Pages on individual collectors
   If the entry for a collector on the "Selection (A-Z)" page (above) gets too large, we move it to become a separate (standalone) page - dedicated to the individual collector.  For a list of these, see the "Examples of collectors" section of the drop-down menus (at the top of every page).
   These pages provide the greatest detail on any individual collector/charity.

Explanatory notes:

So, if you're looking for information on a particular collector, there are three possibilities :

• They're on the A-Z List page - but they're NOT on any other page, OR
• They're on the A-Z List page - AND they have a detailed entry on the Selection (A-Z) page, OR
• They're on the A-Z List page - AND there's a dedicated page on the individual collector.

If you see a collector on the Selection (A-Z) page, there won't be a dedicated page on the individual collector (and vice-versa).

Accuracy

Beware! - information about dubious and bogus collectors is patchy and anecdotal.  Some have confusingly similar names.  The details printed on their leaflets or bags may be incorrect or misleading - for example the names, addresses, registered numbers and telephone numbers of the organisations.  Some leaflets are fakes.

Who's included in this list?

• Organisations known to have carried out house-to-house collections of goods (especially clothing) in the UK (or Irish Republic) since 1999.
   
  Only around three of them were not collecting clothing or similar goods - they were asking for furniture.
• Are they charitable?  The list covers all types of collection - charitable, non-charitable (ie commercial) and hybrids of these two extremes.
   
  Around 90% of the organisations listed mention (or imply) a charitable cause on their leaflets or bags.
• Are they genuine?  The collectors listed cover the whole spectrum - from totally genuine to totally bogus.
  
  Sadly, over 50% of the collectors listed below carry out collections which are misleading and/or bogus and/or illegal.
• The list excludes small informal collections - eg those conducted by scout/guide groups for jumble sales.

  

Order of items

The list is arranged A-Z by name of collector and/or charity.

The three columns in the list

To keep the list concise, we've made the entries short and used a few abbreviations.

Some of the abbreviations are explained on the page called List of organisations and resources.  Examples:  ASA, CRA, FRSB, H2H, IoF, RO, SIC, TRA, TSD.

We've used the word "charity" loosely in the list  - merely to mean the good cause which is apparently being supported (this is the meaning contained in the 1939 Act).  It may not be: (a) a registered charity, or (b) UK-based, or (c) genuine.

We've used the term "co" ("company") as a convenient shorthand to indicate the collector.  In some cases (strictly speaking) they're not companies.

1. Collector/charity column :

• Bold indicates UK-registered charities.
• Green indicates UK charities which have a "national Exemption Order" - see explanatory section below.
• Red indicates organisations which have never existed or have ceased to operate - eg (a) companies which have been dissolved or liquidated, or
  (b) charities which no longer exist.
  Therefore any collections made using their name are fraudulent and illegal.
  For more on this, see the note on enforcement below.
  (Cautionary note:  Before taking action, check the Companies House website to confirm that our information is still correct.)
• In many cases the names of both the charity and collector are given.
• You can check out charities via the Charity Commission.
• You can check out companies (eg Limited/Ltd) via Companies House (Cardiff).
  See our page on Companies and company information.

2. ASA column :

An "ASA" entry in this column indicates that a formal complaint was submitted to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and an adjudication made.  Where no date is given in the Details column, the adjudication was before 2004.  See also :

• our page on the Advertising Standards Authority
• the ASA's press release on clothing collections
• the ASA's website  
• the bullet below on the ASA.

3. Details column :

• Locations (eg London) indicate where the organisation is based or registered.
  "NI" indicates Northern Ireland.
  "Ireland", "Irish", "Eire" or "RoI" indicate the Republic of Ireland (=Southern Ireland).
• "RO" - means Registered Office of the company.
  (This address is given on the government's 'Companies House' website.)
  Some are only 'accommodation' addresses - eg their solicitors or accountants.
• "SIC" - means Standard Industrial Classification (=the "Nature of business").
  Each company has an entry for this on the government's 'Companies House' website.
• "RChNo", "RCharNo", "RCharityNo" etc - means Registered Charity Number - eg "RCharNo 9534562".
  This number is allocated to them by the Charity Commission.
  Note - Don't confuse this with registered company numbers (below).
• "Reg co no" or "co no" - means registered company number.
• "Incorp" - means Incorporated - in other words when a company was set up.
• "est" - means date established (eg a charity).
• "t/a" - means "trading as".  Fictitious example: "Jones Ltd t/a Jones Recycling".
• "AKA" - means "also known as".
• "Upheld" (in relation to the Advertising Standards Authority - the ASA) - means that the ASA decided the complaint was justified (in other words, the advertiser was "guilty").
  The alternatives are "Partly upheld" or "Not upheld" (ie "innocent").
• "PSI" - means "Penman and Sommerlad Investigate" (Daily Mirror newspaper).
• "TRA" - stands for the Textile Recycling Asssociation (the trade body).

Charities with national Exemption Orders (NEOs)

In the list we've colour-coded the charities which have national Exemption Orders in respect of house-to-house collections.  Most of these 43 or so charities are large and well-known - eg British Heart Foundation, Oxfam, Scope and the Children's Society.

See the page on national Exemption Orders for more information.  

As a crude rule of thumb, when you're looking for a collection which is genuine, choose the ones which have a national Exemption Order.

Do the goods go to charity shops?

Charity shop

Where a charity is mentioned (or implied) - do the goods go to charity shops? :

• xStatistics:Alas, only 5-10% of the collectors listed below send the goods to charity shops.  Yet usually these collections raise the most money for good causes. 
  Example: British Heart Foundation (BHF).
• All the other collectors listed sell the goods on commercially, so the goods don't go to charity shops.
• You can check out most of the charities which run charity shops on the website of the Charity Retail Association (CRA).

Other lists of collectors

• xStatistics:As far as we know, our list below is the largest list of collectors which is available on the Internet.  However, it represents maybe just 40% (by number) of the collectors operating in Britain.
• The Charity Commission keep a national database of clothing collectors for use by their own staff, but we assume that its contents are not normally available to the public.
• The ASA - The website of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has around 30 adjudications relating to misleading clothing collections.  They're a very useful resource (often neglected).
  See our page on the ASA for details.
  See also the section above on the ASA (describing the ASA column in the list below).
• Almost all the 300 or so local council licensing departments in England and Wales keep a register of applications for licences for charitable collections (under the 1939 Act).  However, we're not aware that any of these registers are accessible on the Internet.
  See our page on local councils' registers of collection licences.
• The Textile Recycling Association (TRA) - The list of members on their website is very useful.  Around 50 organisations are listed (including two or three charities), with contact details and categorisations.  Many of them carry out house-to-house collections.  TRA: www.textile-recycling.org.uk  
• Searching the Net - We've found many useful items on clothing collectors on the Net - such as press releases from regulators (eg licensing and trading standards), newspaper articles and information in blogs and forums.  However, hardly any of them give lists of collectors.  Notable exceptions are:
  • www.headington.org.uk   - page on clothes collectors/collections
  • http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations  
    "Penman & Sommerlad investigate" (Daily Mirror tabloid newspaper) - excellent
  • www.wastebook.org/textile.htm   An extensive, meaty, official A-Z list, but (alas) it seems it hasn't been updated since January 2007.  It lists textile recycling organisations.  Some do house-to-house collections; some have partnerships with charities.
  • http://chinbags.wordpress.com/about/  
    This is a blog by Neil Fox - with a chronological list of collection bags he's received (similar to the Headington list above).
    "Chin Bags" is his abbreviation for "charity bin bags".
  • Alan Stanton on Flickr  This includes an excellent collection of photographs by Alan Stanton of clothing collection leaflets and bags - on the Flickr website.  Also, he's added explanatory text.  See his set of photos called: 'Good Cause' Collections.
     

The A-Z List of clothing collectors (table)

Coding used in the List - summary

To fully understand the table below, please see the sections above for explanations - such as abbreviations and use of italics.  However, below is a reminder of the key points :

• bold black  =UK registered charities - in column 1
• bold green  =charities with National Exemption Orders (NEOs) - in column 1
• red italics =dissolved, liquidated, closed down etc - in column 1
• Company DISSOLVED  =coding for dissolved, liquidated, closed down etc - in column 3
• Also see the note on enforcement below regarding red entries
• prosecuted  =prosecuted - in column 3
  - see the List of prosecutions page for more details

Enforcement

In general, ANY collection done using the name of an organisation listed in red in column 1 below is ILLEGAL.  If you receive a leaflet or bag alleging it's from them, contact the regulators urgently (in other words, local council licensing, council trading standards and the police) - and try to get the collection intercepted, checked out and stopped.
If you have the time, let us know how you get on.  Contact us.

Filtering the table below

You can look at the table below just as it is - browsing up and down the page as usual  
And you can search it as usual - for instance using Ctrl-F (then using the Enter or F3 keys).

However, this table uses table-filter software - so you can filter and/or sort entries.

Filtering:  At any stage, you can select (in other words, filter) the entries below.
This "collapses" the table temporarily - so it only lists the items (rows) which you want.
Do this as follows:

• Type your search text into one or more of the empty form boxes in the top row of the table (where it says "Type your search text here ! ...").
• Then press the Enter key to do the selection.
• To see the full list of entries again :
  • Delete all the text you've added in the form box(es) - and press the Enter key.
  • Or click on the "Clear filters" icon (a filter funnel with a red cross) at the top right.
  • Or press the F5 function key - which refreshes the page.

The heading(s) of the selected column(s) and the selected text are highlighted.
The filter is case-insensitive - so UPPER or lower case makes no difference.
Use two vertical-line characters (by the "Z" key) to indicate "or".  Example:  bloggs||smith
Other codes include:  {x =begins with x    }x =ends with x    !x =not x    [empty] =empty 
See http://tablefilter.free.fr/   for more of these codes (with examples).
At the top of the table, there's a counter that tells you the number of rows shown.

  Sorting:

• With most filter-tables on the website, you can click on column headings to sort them.
• You can tell if it sorts - your mouse pointer changes to a hand when you hover over a column heading.
• You can click on a sequence of columns to get two or more "levels" of sorting.
  Click in the order of increasing importance (eg click the main sort column last).
  There's an arrow shown on the last column you clicked to sort.
• To revert to the original sort order, press the F5 function key to refresh the page.

These filtering and sorting facilities allow you to interact with the table - so you can change it to suit your needs.  They make the table behave like a simple database or spreadsheet.

See our Web design page for more on table filtering facilities (JavaScript).
The software used on the table below is called "HTML Table Filter" (by Max Guglielmi).
For more help on using it (eg search syntax), see http://tablefilter.free.fr/  

    

Browsers:  The software works fine with Internet Explorer 8, Firefox and Safari.  It's fine with Opera too - except it only sorts one column at a time.

By the way, there's another nice JavaScript table utility called "TableTools"   (by Mingyi Liu).  A modified version is available as a free add-on for the Firefox browser.  When you're browsing with Firefox and see any table, you can call up the TableTools utility (with a right-click) and do powerful filtering and sorting (and more).

Examples of selection/search text which you can type in the empty form boxes below
(Remember: UPPER or lower case makes no difference) :

• Column 1:  "exemption order" (or just "exemption") "ltd" "cancer" "children" "textile" "banks"
• Column 2:  "ASA"
• Column 3:
  • Places:  "London" "Northamptonshire" "Birmingham" "NE England" "NW England || Manchester" "SW England" "Wales || Welsh" "Scot" "Eire || Ireland" "Lithuania" "E Europe || Eastern Europe "
  • Regulators:  "council" "TSD || trading standards" "ASA" "FRSB" "1939"
  • Charities:  "RCharityNo" "est" "ambulance" "AA" "children" "cancer" "income" "annual"
  • Collectors:  "co reg no" "incorp" "Textile Recycling Association" "Care2Collect" "Clothes Aid" "LCRSL" "Audosta" "per ton" "%" "banks"
  • Status:  "respected" "reputable" "unusual" "controvers" "dissolved" "beware" "misleading" "scam" "bogus" "illegal" "licen" "licence" "unlicensed" "prosecut" "revok"
  • Sources:  "BBC" "headington" "St Margarets" "PSI" "Alan Stanton" "blog" "forum"
  • Miscellaneous:  "2011"
     

 

See also the following page: Clothing collectors: A selection (A-Z)
The page has numerous images of leaflets and bags.  Some entries have descriptive text.

 

WARNING ! - confusingly similar names

Don't confuse the different (unconnected) organisations listed above which have similar names :

• You don't want to blame the wrong organisation for a misdemeanour.
• And (at worst) you could be pursued in the courts for defamation/libel.

If you're writing about one of the organisations, PLEASE ensure you quote the name correctly.  Preferably, also give supplementary information that clarifies it (belts-and-braces) - eg registered number and/or address.

Also, carefully check/proof-read your work - whether you're a professional journalist or just writing a blog or forum-comment.

Do a bit of research first - using Google, and the registers of organisations on the websites of Companies House and the Charity Commission.

If you're not sure, use cautious wording such as: apparently, presumably, possibly, seems to be, may be, it appears that, we understand that, as far as we know (or just add a question mark: "?").

Examples of similar names (listed A-Z)

• Air ambulance (AA) organisations - eg:
  • "Air Ambulance Recycling Ltd"
  • "Air Ambulance Service"
  • "Air Ambulance Support CIC"
  • "The Air Ambulance Service"
• Cancer organisations:
  • "Cancer Relief UK"
  • "Cancer Research and Genetics UK"
  • "Cancer Research UK"
• "Cash4Clothes"
  "Cash for Clothing"
  "Clothes for Cash Ltd"
• "Children's Cancer and Leukaemia Fund" (CALF) and
  "Children's Cancer and Leukaemia Group" (CCLG)
• "Children's Heart Surgery Fund" (CHSF) and
  "Children's Hearts Charity"
• "Clothes Aid" and other organisations with "Aid" in their name
• "DB" collectors - eg "DB Collections Ltd" and "DB Exports Ltd"
• "E&C Export Ltd" and "E&N Textiles Ltd"
• "The Hand of Help Ltd" (THOH) and
         "Hand of Help UK Ltd"
• "Help" - organisations beginning with this word or stem
• "Orphan Aid Association" and
  "Orphan and Community Aid" (OCA)
• "Rainbows Children's Hospice" and
  "Rainbow Trust Children's Charity"
• "Recycling"- organisations beginning with this word
• "Second Chance" and
  "Second Life"
• "SOS Clothes Ltd" and
  "SOS Support Ltd"
• "Sparco Ltd" and "Sparko Ltd"
• "Texcycle Ltd", "Ragcycle Ltd" and "Ragtex Ltd"
• "Treating Children with Cancer" (TCWC) and
  "Supporting Children with Cancer"

Odd, interesting and misleading names

You know where you are with a company called "Bloggs Textile Recycling Ltd".  The name's not glamorous - but it does what it says on the can.

However, a number of commercial clothing collection companies have chosen odd names - especially those run by Eastern Europeans (eg Lithuanians).  Beware, in general, the UK government's rules on company names are relaxed.  So (as far as we know) you can call your company "Helping the World's Poor Ltd" - even if you're selling weapons.  Apparently, the name doesn't need to have any relationship to your company's activities (let us know if we're wrong on this).

This matters, because a number of commercial collection companies have names which imply good works or charitable intentions.  Worse still :

• Companies can omit the "Ltd" part of their name by stipulating a "trading as" (t/a) name.
• Commercial companies can buy an ".org.uk" web address (at present) from Nominet.
  See the Use (and misuse) of ".org.uk" web addresses page.
• Some companies state "registered number xxxx" on their collection leaflets - without indicating that the number is a registered company number (rather than a charity number).

Overall, the effect can be very misleading - for instance on collection leaflets or bags.

The list below gives some examples of commercial collection companies with unusual (and/or potentially misleading) names (A-Z) :

• Air Ambulance Recycling Ltd
• "Air Ambulance Service"
• Angel of Goodness Ltd
• The Drops of Help (Ltd)
• The Hand of Help Ltd
• Hand of Help UK Ltd
• Help Aid Now *
• Help and Support Ltd
• Help & Trust Ltd
• Helping Arms Ltd
• Planet Aid
• PSS Support Ltd
• Recyclaid Ltd
• SOS Support Ltd
• Stockport Local Community Collection *
• Support and Help Ltd
• W & W Help Ltd

Note: Names with an asterisk "*" above are not limited companies.

Collection companies which use ".org.uk" in their web address

There are several of these in the table above, including :

• "Air Ambulance Service" (AAS)
• The Drops of Help Ltd (TDOH)

See the following page for more on this issue :  Use of ".org.uk" in web addresses