China'S Next Question Is Where Is The Business Opportunity To Recycle 26 Million Tons Of Discarded Clothes

China's next problem

Peddlers drive tricycles with loudspeakers shouting "recycle old mobile phones, old computers, old refrigerators..." Drive slowly under your house.

But among so many recycled products, there is only one shortage of old clothes.

Recently, Singapore's Straits Times published an article entitled "China's next problem is to recycle 26 million tons of waste clothes".

The season of four seasons is a good time for some people to change their clothes. Some data show that, on average, each person in China buys about 10 pieces of new clothes every year, but 3-5 pieces are discarded, and 2600 tons of clothes are discarded every year.

So, how can we digest such a huge amount of used clothes resources?

First, incineration and landfill. A large number of clothes are burned or landfilled every year, but it causes serious environmental pollution.

Second, recycling and reprocessing.

Some kind-hearted people will put their old clothes in the recycling bin, thinking that they will donate them to the poor people in poor mountainous areas.

It's a distribution channel, but not all clothes are suitable for donation.

According to the relevant regulations, in view of health and safety issues, underwear or T-shirt and other old clothes directly in contact with the skin can not be donated. But the production of these clothes is more than 60%, and donation can't solve the problem.

In addition, poor mountainous areas do not really need so much donated clothing. Statistics in the past five years show that the number of places that need large-scale clothing donation is gradually decreasing.

Therefore, we can't put all our hope on donating to poor mountainous areas. Where have our donated old clothes gone?

Old clothes drifting

Once upon a time, "south wind window" published an article entitled "the distance of a dress". If there is a distance between clothes, then it has three chapters in its life: born in Bangladesh, transported to developed countries such as Europe and America, depreciated, and transported to African people through charitable organizations.

In Africa's used clothes market, the U.S. exports more than 70% of the market share.

China also joined in, exporting used clothes to Africa.

Every year, more than 100 million second-hand clothes are sold from Guangzhou to Africa, with an annual scale of at least several billion. Among them, clothes with Chinese characters are very popular in Africa, which is the same reason that we wear clothes with English letters.

In Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and other places have large and small "mituba" markets. The original meaning of "mituba" is old and second-hand. Now, the local people call the imported used clothing as "mituba".

The reason why imported clothing can sell well in Africa is that the local textile industry is not developed, and the imported used clothes are not only cheap, but also of good quality.

Previously, some media reported that the old clothes recycling boxes on the streets of Qingdao were clearly written with the words of public welfare, charity and love, but these clothes were sold to Africa. Media comments said that this was a black hearted business, which deceived everyone's kindness.

However, on the online used clothes recycling platform - "flying ant", the author found that it wrote on its official website that flying ants would clean and disinfect relatively new summer clothes and export them to Africa, the Middle East and other tropical regions.

Please note that this is not a gratuitous donation, it is profitable. But feiant said that it would use the proceeds to balance the logistics, platform operation and public welfare project expenditure of door-to-door collection service.

The reason why the expenses are arranged in this way is that the flying ants collect old clothes free of charge. You can search for flying ants on the official website, wechat public account and Alipay. You can make an online appointment. The weight of the clothes should be more than 5kg, and the courier will collect them from the door.

Of course, after recycling, flying ants will give you some spiritual rewards, such as green beans, coupons, environmental protection certificates.

In addition to being sold in Africa, the clothes recycled by flying ants will also be handed over to professional environmental recycling factories or recycled for environmental protection. The old clothes will be made into environmental protection bags, storage boxes, gloves and cushions. Of course, some clothes will be donated to the poor.

In our view, these hard and tired jobs have made a million enterprises.

The founder of flying ant is Ma Yun, not the richest man in China. They just happen to have the same name and surname. He revealed that in 2018, flying ants made millions of yuan in recycling waste clothes.

Do you think that's the only point? No, no, no, flying ant's revenue in e-commerce and advertising is as high as 30 million yuan.

In 2018, the e-commerce transaction volume of flying ant reached 50 million yuan.

In this way, the profit model of flying ants emerges.

First of all, a large number of old clothes are collected free of charge from old clothes donors, and then these clothes are classified, some of which are sold to environmental recycling factories or recycled for environmental protection, some are sold to Africa, and some are donated. Finally, millions of fans accumulated through their wechat public account receive advertisements and become e-commerce.

However, the starting point of this logic is that flying ants, under the slogan of environmental protection and public welfare, recycle old clothes free of charge, and then make profits from it. Is this "white wolf with empty hands"?

Can "public welfare" organizations make profits?

Perhaps in the eyes of some people, the operation of public welfare organizations should not be related to money, let alone profit.

However, Jet Li, the founder of the well-known Kungfu and one foundation charity program, once said that if the cost and operation are not taken into account, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are helping others today, and they will be rescued tomorrow.

There is a Da Ai TV station in Taiwan, which needs 30 million yuan of operating capital every year. 10 million yuan is funded by the foundation. Where does the other 20 million come from? All volunteers pick up the garbage.

If there is no money, public welfare organizations can't operate. How can they spread public welfare? Therefore, public welfare organizations can make profits. As long as they don't pay dividends, they are not profit-making organizations. It's OK to ensure that the profit-making money is used for public welfare undertakings.

Public welfare organizations can make profits, so it is more legitimate for commercial organizations like flying ants to make profits. As for whether it is a white wolf with empty hands, we can see it in this way.

First, flying ants help solve the inventory problem. The house is full of clothes. At this time, packing old clothes you don't want to wear and send them to flying ants can greatly save space. Moreover, flying ants pay their own logistics expenses, which is also a very large expense.

Second, flying ant will issue coupons and enjoy preferential treatment on its e-commerce platform, which is a win-win result. Users buy affordable products with coupons, and feiant can also develop e-commerce.

The third is to nurture public welfare. Although some people think that flying ants make money in the name of public welfare, it is undeniable that flying ants do a lot of public welfare.

After all, donating clothes to poor mountain areas also needs to go through the process of collection, cleaning and transportation, which all requires manpower and money. Flying ants can form a virtuous circle by using their own money to do public welfare. In a word, this public welfare is sustainable.

Although the flying ant can't get rid of the suspicion of a white wolf in empty hands, it is undeniable that it has made contributions to the recycling of 26 million tons of used clothes and public welfare undertakings. We donated the clothes to it for free, which is quite worthwhile!