Two leading trade associations say Europe’s textile recycling industry is on the brink of collapse. But behind their clarion call for support lies a more fundamental question: does a textile recycling industry even exist?
At the end of March, Textile Recycling International — a UK firm that collected, sorted and exported secondhand textiles — entered administration. A week later, the UK’s Textile Recycling Association (TRA) issued a statement, claiming that many more were also facing imminent financial threats and citing problems like overflowing sorting facilities, the crisis in the Red Sea disrupting shipping lines, rising taxation from African and Asian markets, fast fashion flooding the secondhand market with low-quality goods, and mounting pressure from legislators to curb the export of textile waste.
“When one person sneezes, the whole sector catches a cold,” says Alan Wheeler, CEO of the TRA. “Our members are worried about whether they can pay their staff at the end of the month, so it was necessary to take action.” It’s not just the UK. EuRIC — the TRA’s European counterpart — has issued its own statement, claiming that the Netherlands and Germany are also struggling. They point to increasing competition between collectors and a drop in demand for their sorted secondhand textiles. Other cracks have started to show, as textile recycling company and former sustainable fashion darling Renewcell navigates bankruptcy.
These organisations’ concerns ring hollow for experts who say their operations were never viable to begin with because they don’t actually recycle textiles, despite what their names suggest, and they have done more to shift the textile waste problem than they have to solve it.
According to new data from climate action NGO Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), the amount of used textiles currently recycled in the UK is minimal. Of the 1,452 kilotonnes of post-consumer textiles generated by the public each year, 83 kilotonnes go to landfill, 638 kilotonnes are incinerated for energy, and 38 kilotonnes go to unspecified “other end-of-life” options. The sorters rely most heavily on the export market, the faultlines of which are now leaving their entire business models in tatters. Of the 469 kilotonnes that pass through the UK’s used textile sorters and graders, 421 kilotonnes are exported. Just 34 kilotonnes are sent to UK recyclers, and 4 kilotonnes go to rags exports.
The organisations are calling for legislation that can help clean up the industry. In the European Union, the policy wheels are already in motion as part of the European Green Deal announced in 2020, which lays out policies and extended producer responsibility (EPR) and eco-design principles that will have a direct impact on the secondhand clothing trade.
But legislation is far off from industry reform, and the real issue unspoken in these warnings is that the textile-to-textile recycling industry has never gotten off the ground.
Why now?
Historically, the European textile sorting and recycling industry has been propped up by profits from selling lower-quality secondhand textiles that can’t be resold locally to secondhand markets in eastern Europe and the Global South. These sales subsidise the cost of everything else the European textile waste handlers do: collecting and sorting post-consumer textile waste, downcycling the lowest-quality items for insulation or use in other industries, and sending some off to textile-to-textile recyclers as feedstock.
There is also a second, hidden subsidy at play, because secondhand markets tend to sell off any stock they can’t shift to consumers, further outsourcing waste management. In this way — and because all textiles will eventually be deemed unwearable — the countries exporting post-consumer textiles are offloading the responsibility for landfilling and incineration to poorer countries that do not have sufficient infrastructure to process it.
The current crisis started in September, says EuRIC president Mariska Boer, when demand for exported secondhand textiles began to dip. She attributes this to the increased competition from fast fashion players entering markets previously reliant on Europe’s secondhand, especially Africa. At the same time, charity shops and clothing donation points are overflowing thanks to rising overproduction, and sorting companies can’t shift the secondhand textiles fast enough. Meanwhile, fierce debates are being had over whether secondhand clothing imports should be banned — as they were in Rwanda in 2018 — and to what extent clothing producers should pay for better waste management infrastructure in the countries where their clothes end up.
Distorted data and definitions
Different actors can’t seem to agree on a path forward because it’s so hard to get an unbiased, holistic view of the current situation. Accusations of distorted data and hidden impacts are hurled left, right and centre — especially when it comes to how much of the secondhand textiles shipped overseas are waste.
In December 2023, the Dutch government published a report on the destinations of Dutch used textiles, claiming that 4 per cent of each bale shipped to Ghana is classified as “asei”, meaning it is unsellable and immediately becomes waste. The same report says that approximately 30 per cent to 40 per cent of each bale is third selection (“worn, poor-quality pieces”), which might account for the now-widespread claim that 40 per cent enters the market as waste.
Recycling associations and their suppliers are adamant that they’re not in the business of saddling the Global South with unusable goods. “We are not simply dumping our problems into developing countries,” says Robin Osterley, CEO of the UK’s Charity Retail Association.
“The biggest challenge is the misrepresentation of the trade,” says Teresia Wairimu Njenga, chairperson of Mitumba Consortium Association of Kenya (MCAK), a trade body representing over two million traders of secondhand clothing. “In Kenya, we have been importing used clothes for over 40 years and we have protocols that have been revised several times. Africans importing these clothes are business people, they are not stupid people who will pay for waste.” According to MCAK, only 2 per cent of the secondhand textiles imported are waste, which they describe as an inevitable margin for human error in the sorting process.
EuRIC’s Boer admits that much of what Europe ships overseas is lower quality. “Roughly 10-15 per cent of the secondhand textiles collected in Europe are of a suitable quality to be resold here. Of the remaining 85-90 per cent, about half is still good clothing, so it can be sold worldwide, even if we can’t sell it here. Right now — without proper sorting and handling specifications, which we are pushing for — the only realistic alternative for the other 50 per cent is incineration.”
Others disagree, and point out that even if the quality of the clothes coming in is good enough to resell, the ultimate end-of-life question remains unaddressed. The clothes are going to become waste at some point, and most receiving countries don’t have the waste infrastructure to process it. And today’s clothes — mostly synthetics, and made with chemicals — do not have the ability to decompose. “Even if the secondhand clothing sent to the Global South were 100 per cent waste free, there would still be a big problem. All clothing has an end of life, and they eventually become waste and have to be managed. Who pays for the end-of-life management of this clothing? It is the poor countries,” Betterman Musasia, founder of public sanitation project Clean Up Kenya, wrote on Linkedin.
What would a better system look like?
In recent years, charity shops have been flooded with low-quality fast fashion, says Osterley. This has a knock-on effect for textile sorters and recyclers, as well as the countries receiving shipments of secondhand garments. “A lot of cheap fast fashion that gets donated is barely wearable, so it will likely end up in the rag stream,” he explains. “We would love to see government intervention to reduce the amount of dispensable clothing manufacturing, which is a gross misuse of the earth’s resources.”
While EPR and ecodesign principles are coming thick and fast in the EU, the UK has been slower to legislate. The UK government hinted at an EPR consultation for the textile industry in 2018, but nothing came to fruition.
Bans on exporting unsorted waste aside, there are concerns about the ability of certain countries to properly process secondhand textiles. “You should not ship waste to a country that doesn’t have the infrastructure to deal with it,” says Elmar Stroomer, co-founder of Africa Collect Textiles, which works to build a circular economy for textiles in Kenya and Nigeria. “On the other hand, you’re also not letting that country pick the fruits by sorting it themselves. What is usually shipped to African countries is B and C grade, not A grade. If you could ship unsorted goods (which is not allowed), they would have a chance to choose A-grade items (which have a higher value and a longer lifespan) and it would be cheaper.”
Investment is needed
“What we need is investment in recycling and waste management infrastructure in the countries receiving secondhand textiles,” says Wheeler. “Instead of putting forward proposals to ban a highly efficient and environmentally beneficial used-clothing trade, policymakers should concentrate on implementing strategies to improve recycling collections and waste management.”
Investment is urgently needed in the Global South, but elsewhere as well. As of right now, Europe has no viable textile-to-textile recycling industry to speak of, says Boer. “There’s no demand for recycled fibres here and there’s low confidence in the quality of post-consumer textiles that have been recycled.” If startups can crack this, sorters won’t be as financially dependent on exporting secondhand textiles, she adds.
In the UK, textile ecosystem startup Circle-8 is working to get an automated sorting facility up and running so that more non-rewearable textiles can be diverted to chemical recycling, having received a significant portion of a $5 million grant from Innovate UK. “These innovations take time, and sadly the investment and technology haven’t been able to keep up with the pace of overproduction, which is at the root of this issue,” says Circle-8 co-founder Cyndi Rhoades. “We just don’t have the infrastructure yet to turn these textiles back into new resources.”
“We have to look at the textiles industry as a whole,” says Tim Cross, managing director of Project Plan B, a textile-to-textile recycler currently partnering with the Salvation Army Trading Company to recycle the 100 per cent polyester textile waste from its charity shops. “The reality is that we’re making and selling way more clothes than are needed and that clothing is now a pollutant. It’s not designed to be recycled, so the chances are it won’t be. Textile-to-textile recycling is growing, but very little is actually happening at the moment.”
To move forward in a more equitable way, the secondhand textile industry needs to redistribute responsibility as well as funds. While no path forward has yet been decided, it’s clear that the days of the Global North shipping the problem to the Global South without repercussions must end. “We’re trying to flip the market on its head, so it’s natural that there will be a teething period,” says Rhoades. “Our collective return on investment won’t happen overnight. We need everyone to be changing and adapting to this new model to make it work.”
There’s no demand for recycled fibres here and there’s low confidence in the quality of post-consumer textiles that have been recycled.” If startups can crack this, sorters won’t be as financially dependent on exporting secondhand textiles, she adds.
In the UK, textile ecosystem startup Circle-8 is working to get an automated sorting facility up and running so that more non-rewearable textiles can be diverted to chemical recycling, having received a significant portion of a $5 million grant from Innovate UK. “These innovations take time, and sadly the investment and technology haven’t been able to keep up with the pace of overproduction, which is at the root of this issue,” says Circle-8 co-founder Cyndi Rhoades. “We just don’t have the infrastructure yet to turn these textiles back into new resources.”
“We have to look at the textiles industry as a whole,” says Tim Cross, managing director of Project Plan B, a textile-to-textile recycler currently partnering with the Salvation Army Trading Company to recycle the 100 per cent polyester textile waste from its charity shops. “The reality is that we’re making and selling way more clothes than are needed and that clothing is now a pollutant. It’s not designed to be recycled, so the chances are it won’t be. Textile-to-textile recycling is growing, but very little is actually happening at the moment.”
To move forward in a more equitable way, the secondhand textile industry needs to redistribute responsibility as well as funds. While no path forward has yet been decided, it’s clear that the days of the Global North shipping the problem to the Global South without repercussions must end. “We’re trying to flip the market on its head, so it’s natural that there will be a teething period,” says Rhoades. “Our collective return on investment won’t happen overnight. We need everyone to be changing and adapting to this new model to make it work.”
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