Across Europe, the vital industry responsible for sorting discarded textiles for reuse and recycling is teetering on the edge of collapse, with urgent alarms sounding from the Netherlands, Germany, and the UK.
Without immediate intervention, this crisis threatens to escalate, resulting in irreversible economic and environmental harm.
Rising costs, plummeting sales due to fierce competition, and regulatory gaps are jeopardizing valuable reusable textile resources and the circular economy. The combination of unsold second-hand clothing due to a global sales downturn and inadequate recycling business models means discarded textiles are at risk of being sent directly to incinerators without being reused or recycled.
Mariska Boer, President of EuRIC’s Textiles Branch, warned: “The prospect of incineration becoming the only option if textile sorting becomes financially unviable is deeply alarming. All efforts to create a sustainable textile value chain in a circular economy would be futile if textiles cannot be collected and sorted in Europe. The economic impact, both locally and within the EU, would be immense if second-hand clothing cannot be supplied to countries that rely on it.”
EuRIC has consistently called for urgent EU-wide action to prevent the collapse of Europe’s textile reuse and recycling sector. Immediate steps include implementing supportive Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes under the revised Waste Framework Directive (WFD). Additionally, measures such as green public procurement, mandating recycled content in textile products, and introducing recyclability criteria through ecodesign regulations (ESPR) are crucial to boosting demand for recycled materials, promoting sustainable practices, and ensuring the viability of the textile recycling industry.
