More than 750 have been stolen from supermarket and council car parks across the UK

Charities are losing a fortune following a spate of clothing recycling bin thefts.

More than 750 have been stolen from supermarket and council car parks across the UK.

It is costing charities hundreds of thousands in donations and through having to cover the cost of the lost bins.

While big charities such as the British Heart Foundation have their own bins, many clothing banks are run by companies for the benefit of smaller charities.

These charities get about £250 per tonne of clothes, which can give them an income of perhaps £70 a week. There are about 15,000 banks across the UK.

Most of the removals of the bins take place at night by gangs in transit vans.

Textiles Recycling Association president Ian Woods told BBC Five Live Investigates: “This is a problem that has been coming on over the last 18 months.”

The issue was not new, he said, since clothing recycling bins had disappeared from 2009-10, too, but the problem is now “coming back with a vengeance”.

Woods said the cost of buying a new bin could be between £600 and £1000, which would rise to a maximum of £1,500 if repainting with charity livery were factored in.

It could cost £1 million to replace all 750 bins which have disappeared.