There is certainly no shortage of new reports on textile waste and reuse at the moment, so why read this one published by Fashion for Good and Circle Economy?
We would answer: because the report offers solid material, including sorting data for 8,280 garments across four EU countries and good information from sorters and others operating in this landscape. Another good reason is that the report has clear conclusions and recommendations that fly in the face of Brussels. Among the long list of authors, you will also find OsloMet’s Ingun Grimstad Klepp and Kerli Kant Hvass, both active in the Wasted Textile project at SIFO. This ensured a transfer of experience from this NFR project into a European project with an emphasis on categorising the textiles. This is not easy because the value of textiles is not necessarily tied to technical and measurable factors, but to their sales value, which is determined by supply and demand and also by competition from the ever-stronger flows of cheap new clothes. We also note that the critical work by Irene Maldini and several SIFO researchers on longevity, both in research and policy, is given an important place in the report’s conclusions and opens up for the way forward to be through reduction.
So what does the new report say?
- That discarded clothes are not worn out, and nothing is wrong with them. Many already knew this, but it is now better documented. Most garments were technically rewearable, 37% had no damage, and 41% had only minor flaws. There is neither funding nor initiative to do the simplest things to increase the reuse value of clothes, such as washing them.
- That the political decision to introduce separate collection of textiles has led to larger volumes, poor profitability and bankruptcies in the sector. More collection does not create more market for used clothes, and competition from large quantities of cheap clothes means it is not profitable to preserve value in the stream of used clothing.
- The large export of used clothes from the EU to Rewear export destinations, Ghana and Pakistan, illustrating how Rewear dynamics play out in a global value chain.
Knowledge about the textile value chain and textile waste is steadily growing. So too is the volume of textile waste that sails around the world under the radar of opposition to waste export because it is defined as “reuse”, together with policies that increase this trade while paying lip service to the circular economy. The report shows that there is a great deal of value and much more potential for using these textiles if there were actors.
The report is available here: circle-economy.com/knowledge-hub/article/tyt7