Redistribution of Excess Merchandise in the Retail Sector

This case study by GreenCape examines The Clothing Bank, a non-profit intermediary in South Africa that diverts excess retail clothing from landfills to create entrepreneurial opportunities for unemployed single mothers, demonstrating a circular economy model that addresses both waste and poverty.

• The Clothing Bank operates as an intermediary that collects unsold, returned, or slightly damaged clothing from retail partners and provides a 24-month training programme to unemployed single mothers, enabling them to start sustainable clothing sales businesses in their communities.
• Between its inception in 2010 and May 2021, the initiative diverted 13.7 million textile items from landfills. The model is scalable, expanding from Cape Town to five branches across South Africa, with entrepreneurs generating a total of R204 million since inception.
• The programme provides significant economic upliftment for participants; as of May 2021, the Cape Town branch supported approximately 229 women who had generated R72.8 million in revenue. The average monthly income for graduates across all regions is R4 245, which is 13% higher than the South African minimum wage of R3 759.
• The Clothing Bank employs a self-funding business model where clothing is sold to entrepreneurs at a fee rather than donated, allowing the organisation to recover most of its costs. The self-funding ratio reached 89% for the 2019 financial year.
• The organisation has diversified its circular economy model through three additional programmes: The Appliance Bank for repairing home appliances, Grow Educare Centres for Early Childhood Development, and Trade UP for seamstresses using textile off-cuts and deadstock fabric.

APA

GreenCape (2021). Redistribution of Excess Merchandise in the Retail Sector. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Case-study_Life-beyond-sales-rack-3.pdf

Chicago

GreenCape. Redistribution of Excess Merchandise in the Retail Sector. 2021. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Case-study_Life-beyond-sales-rack-3.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=GreenCape |title=Redistribution of Excess Merchandise in the Retail Sector |date=2021 |url=https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Case-study_Life-beyond-sales-rack-3.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{greencape2021redistribution, author = {{GreenCape}}, title = {{Redistribution of Excess Merchandise in the Retail Sector}}, institution = {GreenCape}, year = {2021}, url = {https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Case-study_Life-beyond-sales-rack-3.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }