How To Recycle Plastic Clothes Hangers

Every year, billions of plastic clothes hangers quietly pile up in landfills — ignored in nearly every conversation about plastic waste. They’re not as photogenic as a sea turtle tangled in a straw, but they’re just as damaging. The good news? Getting rid of them responsibly isn’t as complicated as it sounds once you know where to look and what to do.

Why Plastic Hangers Are a Recycling Headache

Before diving into solutions, it helps to understand the problem. Most plastic hangers aren’t a single material — they’re a cocktail.

The Multi-Material Problem

Common hanger plastics include polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polycarbonate (PC), and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Each has a different melting point and chemical structure. When these plastics are fused together — or combined with metal clips and rubber grips — they become nearly impossible to separate at a standard recycling facility.

That’s why most curbside recycling programs reject plastic hangers outright. Tossing them in your blue bin doesn’t just fail to help; it can contaminate an entire batch of otherwise recyclable material.

The Scale of the Problem

Braiform, the world’s largest re-user and recycler of garment hangers, estimates that billions of hangers end up in landfills every single year. Their research — independently verified by the Carbon Trust — found that simply reusing a single hanger nine times reduces its carbon emissions by 79%. That one number puts the entire problem into sharp perspective.

Identify Your Hanger First

Not all plastic hangers are created equal. Knowing what you’re dealing with determines your best disposal route.

The resin identification code (the number inside the recycling triangle, stamped on the hanger) tells you what plastic type you’re dealing with. A hanger stamped #5 (PP) has the best chance of being accepted by a specialist recycler. A hanger with no number, multiple textures, or visible mixed components is a harder case.

Step-by-Step: How to Recycle Plastic Clothes Hangers

Think of this as a tiered system — start at the top and work your way down based on what’s available in your area.

Step 1 — Assess and Sort

Pull all your old or unwanted hangers into one spot. Separate them into three groups:

• Intact and clean — strong candidates for donation or retail take-back
• Broken but single-material — candidates for specialist recycling
• Mixed-material or heavily damaged — likely destined for creative reuse or, as a last resort, general waste

Step 2 — Remove All Non-Plastic Components

Before any hanger goes to a recycling facility, strip it down.

• Detach metal hooks — these can be recycled separately as scrap metal
• Remove rubber grips or velvet coatings — these contaminate plastic recycling streams
• Pop off plastic clips if they appear to be a different plastic type than the hanger body

This step alone dramatically improves your chances of having the hanger accepted.

Step 3 — Clean the Hangers

A quick wipe-down removes dust, lint, dry-cleaning chemical residue, or product labels. Dirty or contaminated plastics are frequently rejected even at specialist facilities. Clean hangers are courteous hangers.

Step 4 — Choose Your Recycling Route

This is where most people get stuck — and where the real decisions happen.

Where to Actually Take Plastic Hangers

Retail Take-Back Programs

Some of the most accessible recycling routes run straight through the stores that created the problem in the first place.

• Target reuses its garment hangers seven or more times before eventually grinding them down to manufacture new hangers
• H&M runs in-store garment and textile collection at 4,500+ stores across 70 countries, and has collected over 20,000 tonnes annually — programs vary by location, so always confirm before visiting
• Kohl’s and Walmart have historically listed rigid plastics (including hangers) among accepted materials at some locations

Pro tip: Call your nearest store before you go. These programs are often paused, location-specific, or seasonally adjusted. Asking also signals consumer demand, which nudges retailers to keep programs alive.

Dry Cleaners

This is one of the most underrated options on the list. Many dry cleaners actively collect both plastic and wire hangers for reuse. They receive clean clothes back on new hangers constantly, so they’re used to the logistics of hanger circulation. Drop a bag of your unwanted hangers at the counter — most will say yes.

Charity Shops and Thrift Stores

Charity shops often accept intact, undamaged hangers because they need them to display donated clothing. This isn’t technically recycling, but it’s a form of closed-loop reuse — the hanger stays in circulation and keeps doing its job. Call ahead to confirm the shop’s current policy.

Specialist Recycling Centers and Drop-Off Points

Municipal recycling centers — particularly those with rigid plastics or hard-to-recycle drop-off areas — sometimes accept plastic hangers in bulk. These facilities often collaborate with plastic manufacturers who can process mixed or complex polymers that standard recyclers can’t handle.

Reuse and Upcycle: When Recycling Isn’t Possible

Sometimes a hanger simply can’t be recycled — the materials are too mixed, the local infrastructure doesn’t exist, or the hanger is too damaged for any facility to want. That’s where creative reuse steps in. Think of it as buying time: the longer a hanger stays out of a landfill, the lower its lifetime carbon footprint.

Practical Reuse Ideas

• Laundry drying — Slightly bent or scruffy hangers are perfectly fine for air-drying clothes
• Garden plant supports — The stiff plastic works surprisingly well as a stake for young climbing plants
• Ribbon or yarn spool holders — Slide spools onto a broken hanger for tangle-free storage
• Paper towel dispenser — A hanger broken at the center can hold a standard paper towel roll
• Bag and accessory organiser — Hang scarves, belts, and bags from a single hanger using shower curtain rings
• Seasonal décor — Arrange hangers in a star pattern, zip-tie them together, and add festive trim for an upcycled wreath

Emerging Recycling Technologies

The infrastructure for recycling complex plastics is improving. Two developments worth watching:

Chemical Recycling

Where mechanical recycling (grinding plastic down and reforming it) struggles with mixed materials, chemical recycling breaks plastic all the way back to its monomer building blocks. This means even blended-polymer hangers could theoretically be processed. The technology is still scaling up and isn’t widely available to consumers yet, but it’s an active growth area.

Manufacturer Take-Back Schemes

Braiform — the company behind hanger reuse programs for major retailers globally — already re-circulates over 1 billion hangers per year, saving 35,000 metric tonnes of plastic from landfill annually. These closed-loop manufacturer schemes represent the gold standard: a hanger is made, used, collected, and remade — over and over — without ever touching a waste stream.

The Environmental Stakes

Recycling plastic, even imperfectly, delivers real results. Research shows that recycling one additional tonne of plastic waste instead of sending it to landfill or incineration generates GHG savings of 1,140–3,573 kg CO₂ equivalent per tonne of polymer. On a household scale, the numbers are smaller — but multiplied across a supply chain or a neighbourhood, they add up fast.

Reuse is even more powerful. That 79% carbon reduction from reusing a single hanger nine times is a reminder that the best environmental option is almost always to keep the thing you already have in use as long as possible.

Key Takeaways

• Don’t put plastic hangers in your curbside bin — their mixed materials contaminate recycling batches and they’re routinely rejected
• Retail take-back programs at stores like Target and H&M are your most accessible recycling route — always confirm availability before visiting
• Dry cleaners are an underrated drop-off option that accepts hangers for direct reuse with minimal friction
• Reusing a hanger just nine times cuts its carbon footprint by 79% — prioritise reuse and donation before recycling
• Prepare hangers properly before any drop-off: remove metal hooks, wipe them clean, and sort by plastic type where possible

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Can you put plastic clothes hangers in the recycling bin at home?
In most cases, no. Standard curbside recycling programs reject plastic hangers because of their mixed-material construction (multiple plastic types, metal hooks, rubber grips) and awkward shape. Always check your local waste authority’s guidelines — rules vary significantly by municipality.

What type of plastic are clothes hangers made from, and does it matter for recycling?
Yes, it matters a great deal. Most hangers use polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), or ABS plastic, often in combination. Single-material hangers — especially those marked with a resin code #5 (PP) — are the easiest to recycle. Mixed-material hangers are far harder and often need specialist facilities.

Where can I drop off plastic hangers for recycling near me?
Your best options are retail take-back programs (Target, H&M, Kohl’s, Walmart — confirm locally), dry cleaners (for direct reuse), charity shops (for intact hangers), and specialist recycling centres that accept hard-to-recycle plastics. Use tools like Recycle Now or your local council’s waste finder to locate specific drop-off points.

How many times can a plastic hanger be reused before it needs recycling?
Research by Braiform (verified by the Carbon Trust) found that reusing a hanger nine times reduces its carbon emissions by 79%. There’s no hard upper limit — a well-made PP or ABS hanger can last for years of regular use before it needs to be recycled or replaced.

Can broken plastic hangers be recycled?
Broken hangers made from a single plastic type can often be taken to a specialist recycling centre. Broken hangers with multiple materials or non-plastic components are more difficult — in that case, creative upcycling (paper towel holders, garden stakes, craft projects) keeps them out of landfill longer.

Why do retailers like Target reuse hangers instead of just recycling them?
Reuse is more efficient and cheaper than recycling. Target reuses each garment hanger seven or more times before grinding it down to manufacture new hangers. This closed-loop model conserves both material and energy, reducing the overall environmental footprint compared to making a new hanger from virgin plastic each time.

What happens if I accidentally put plastic hangers in the wrong recycling bin?
A small number of non-recyclable items in a recycling batch is typically handled by facility sorters. However, large quantities of contaminating items like plastic hangers can cause an entire recycling load to be rejected and sent to landfill instead. When in doubt, set them aside and find a dedicated drop-off point rather than risking batch contamination.