About Sait Recycling
A family firm with roots stretching back to the 1930s
L W Sait & Sons is a family textile recycling business based in Queenborough, on the Kent coast. We collect, grade and trade donated textiles for charity retailers across London and the South East.
Rag merchanting is one of Britain’s oldest recycling trades, and our roots in it stretch back to the 1930s. Back then, textiles were collected, sorted and traded because wasting them was unthinkable. The economics have changed. The discipline hasn’t. Material is only worth what careful handling makes of it. And a customer’s trust is worth more than any single load.
We’re still run day to day by the family whose name is on the door. We plan the rounds, agree every rate in writing, and pick up the phone when a shop manager needs an answer. That’s why our clients get a named contact, not a ticket number. And when we say the weight on the ticket is the weight you’re paid on, that’s a personal promise, not a line from a service catalogue.
It’s also why we built our client portal. The question charity retailers ask most is simple: what actually happens after the van pulls away? A monthly total isn’t a good enough answer. So we record every visit, weight and outcome, and let clients read the ledger for themselves. You can try a demo of it right now, no sign-up.
After collection
Sorted by hand at our facility
Collected stock comes back to our facility, where our team sorts it by hand. Reusable clothing is graded first and moves on to resale. What can’t be worn again is sorted into recycling grades so the material still gets used rather than wasted.
Sorting by hand is slower than tipping everything into one bale, but it is what keeps the value in a donated bag. And it is why the rate on your ticket holds up.
Standards
Certified, and checkable
We’re members of the Textile Recycling Association, the UK trade body for collectors and processors of used textiles. And we hold TRUST certification: an independent audit of licences, insurance, health and safety, worker treatment, environmental controls and transport. Both are explained, with links so you can check them, on our standards page.
Who we work with
Trusted by charities and public bodies
We work with charities including British Heart Foundation, Oxfam, Barnardo’s, British Red Cross, RSPCA, Thames Hospice, Farleigh Hospice and Aspens. And with public bodies including Kent County Council.
We collect for charities and public bodies including
- and RSPCA, Farleigh Hospice, Aspens