At present, we’re drowning in textile waste. In the EU, approximately 11kg¹ worth of textiles are discarded per person, per year. That amounts to 5.8 million tonnes of textile waste created every single year, 81% of which is clothing. And it’s a figure likely to grow: in 1960, American citizens generated 1.7 million US tons² of textile waste, by 2018 it had ballooned to 17 million tons.

How we got here…
Fast fashion is reliant on overconsumption. To make a profit from low priced goods you must make them cheaply and sell a lot of them, so brands stimulate our desire for newness with a ceaseless offering of new trends and styles. In the earlier days of fast fashion, brick and mortar stores might renew their stock every couple of weeks instead of seasonally to boost demand, now ultra-fast fashion brands add up to 2,000³ new items daily.

To support this glut of new product, clothing production has more than doubled⁴ over the past two decades, while use has declined by approximately 40%, aligned with a notable reduction in quality and a 30%⁵ reduction in price, relative to inflation. It’s the perfect recipe for the perceived disposability of modern clothing and, according to research by Oxfam, the thrill of buying a new item can now fade after as few as four wears⁶. “Our brains are stimulated by novelty, but we become accustomed to new things quickly: over a relatively short period of time, what was once new and exciting no longer appeals to us,” says cognitive psychologist Dr Carolyn Mair. 

Where does it all go?

Until recently, textile waste was relatively easy for people in the Global North to ignore, as much of it is incinerated or landfilled away from the general public (although not everyone is so lucky⁷), and the rest of it is packed up and exported. But evidence of the true impact started to trickle through. The work of The Or Foundation went a long way in pulling back the curtains, exposing the 15 million items a week⁸ landing at Kantamanto Market in Accra, Ghana, more than 40% of which becomes waste almost immediately. 

Africa and Asia are the foremost recipients of used clothing exports. Africa received 46%⁹ of the 1.7 million tonnes of used textiles exported from the EU in 2019, Asia received 41%. The volume of EU exports has more than tripled since 2000.

In 2022, photographs of Chile’s Atacama Desert piled high with clothes from fast fashion brands— many still with tags on — were published in the press. The estimated 39,000¹⁰ tonnes of clothing are deemed unsellable due to damage or poor quality. In June of that year, a fire swept through the fast fashion graveyard. And the Global North’s dumping grounds keep coming. A 2023 Changing Markets Foundation report revealed that 900 million¹¹ items were sent to Kenya from around the world in 2021. While Kenya has sizeable secondhand textile industry, it simply cannot deal with the volume its receiving and it’s estimated that between 20-50% of clothing bales are unusable. At dumpsites, clothing litters riverbanks and is embedded in the soil.

The Plastic Problem

Further compounding the tonnes of textile waste produced each year is the fact that most of it is plastic. Synthetics have dominated since the 1990s, now representing around 64%¹² of global fibre production. Polyester, a fast fashion favourite, has an enormous 54% market share.

When sitting in landfill or at an export dumpsite, synthetics won’t break down into matter that feeds the soil, they will exist for decades, fragmenting and releasing microfibres and the harmful additives used during production. Polyester fibres in soil can affect soil structure¹³, the vital activity of microbes, and plant growth. It’s as yet unknown precisely what the impact of such microplastics have on the human body, but they have been found in human lungs¹⁴, placenta¹⁵, breast milk¹⁶, and blood¹⁷.

Legislating for change
After decades of brand-led action (or, more accurately, inaction), legislation is pushing textile waste solutions up the list of industry priorities. France and Sweden have introduced EPR for textiles, WRAP has backed an EPR scheme in the UK and by January 1st 2025, all EU member states will be required to establish one. In 2023, The Or Foundation launched Stop Waste Colonialism. It seeks a harmonised, global EPR policy with eco-modulated fees starting at USD0.50 per newly produced garment, distribution of funds to the Global South, mandated disclosure, and “reduction targets for new clothing of at least 40% over five years, balanced by the increase of reuse and remanufacture of existing materials”.

Perhaps the closest policy strategy to this is the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles which seeks to ensure that by 2030 textile products placed on the market are long-lived, recyclable, made from recycled fibres to a large extent, and produced in respect of social rights and the environment.

Learning from the past
Textile waste is an enormous problem, but many of the solutions already exist and, in fact, represent the ‘old’ way of doing things: repairing, reusing, and repurposing. At Kantamanto Market, over 25 million garments are re-circulated each month. Bismark Awuah, a tailor with over 20 years’ experience, has personally recirculated 1,560,000¹⁸ items of clothing.

Way behind Kantamanto’s efforts, but attempting to catch up, repair services are scaling in the UK and the US. Sojo and The Seam are among a new crop of independent services while brands including Uniqlo and Ganni are offering it directly to their customers. A return to quality over quantity also bridges past and present. It’s a topic that has earned UK content creator Andrea Cheong over 233,000¹⁹ followers on TikTok and 121,000²⁰ followers on Instagram as she inspects seams, checks linings, and scrutinises finishes on garments by fashion’s most popular brands, showing a consumer base eager for fashion education. On a more formal level, the EU’s Ecodesign requirements will mandate increased durability, tackling details such as fibre blends which reduce quality and contaminate recycling streams further down the value chain.

Innovation is abundant
While revisiting past systems solves many problems, new innovations are needed to stand up to the sheer volume of textile production and waste. It starts with cutting the 25-40%²¹ of fabric used in production which becomes waste. The Texloop recycling programme from Circular Systems, which has recently partnered with FibreTrace to verify the authenticity of its recycled textiles, reclaims pre-consumer cotton textile waste and upgrades it into high quality RCOT recycled cotton fibre. 702,279kg²² of RCOT has been shipped to date. However, while 100% recycled cotton is available on a small scale, generally it must be blended with other fibres such as organic cotton or Lycocell to be commercially viable. That’s where things get tricky at end-of-life. “Post-consumer is a mixed bag. Synthetic fibres, natural fibres, and man-made cellulosic fibres, among other things, are all mixed. How you identify compositions and sort them into categories is challenging,” says Andrew Schulenburg, SVP of Circular Systems. 

Some are having pre-commercial success with post-consumer recycled fibres. Infinited Fiber’s Infinna textile, which is biodegradable and microplastic free, is certified as being made from 99%²³ post-consumer recycled cellulose, and its process, while cellulose-reliant, can handle blends. Circ, meanwhile, uses hydrothermal processing in its recycling technology platform, and can accept cotton, polyester, and polycotton. But despite the growing possibilities of post-consumer fibre-to-fibre recycling (backed by the likes of Adidas, Inditex, H&M, and Bestseller, who are keen to become compliant ahead of policy change and legislative shifts) just 2%²⁴ of post-consumer textiles are diverted to the process.

Projects such as T-REX are emerging to solve the conundrum, exploring the use of NIR technology to streamline sorting, and demonstrating the “full recycling process of polyester, polyamide 6, and cellulosic materials from textile waste into new garments”. The project seeks to create a harmonised EU blueprint, a desired feedstock, and a commodity for new business. Project results are expected in summer 2025.²⁵

While end-of-life infrastructure is vital, so too is prolonging the active life of clothes. Repair, repurposing, and resale are existing building blocks of that solution, however garment care — an overlooked part of everyday life — is another vital area to explore and one where yet more innovation abounds, like that of Xeros’s XC system. “Our XOrbs [small plastic ‘orbs’] roll in between the garments, instead of the garments rubbing against each other creating friction. They protect the surface and provide a gentler mechanical action, but at the same time they’re quite heavy, so they weigh down on the garments and help remove dirt and stains,” explains Xeros CSO Dr Paul Servin. In creating a more gentle washing process, XOrbs prolong the life of clothes, reduce shrinkage and ironing time, and reduce microfibre shedding by between 35-50%, according to Servin. Presso’s ‘EcoRobo Garment Care’, meanwhile, uses patent-pending “StretchAI robotics” to clean and press clothes in under five minutes in a cycle-free process designed to eliminate damage, shrinkage, fading and fibre loss.

One problem, many solutions
The answer to textile waste is multifaceted, therefore it’s all hands on deck to curb overconsumption, design with durability in mind, shift consumer behaviour, unlock circular revenue models, and innovate new technologies that assist in every step of the solution. “As mankind, if we see that we are causing an issue somewhere, we need to start dealing with it,” says Servin.

References

1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52022DC0141 
2. https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/textiles-material-specific-data#:~:text=The%20total%20amount%20of%20textiles,percent%20of%20all%20MSW%20landfilled.
3. https://www.businessofapps.com/data/shein-statistics/#:~:text=It%20is%20now%20the%20leader,new%20items%20to%20its%20store.
4.  https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/fashion-and-the-circular-economy-deep-dive#:~:text=Clothing%20represents%20more%20than%2060,has%20declined%20by%20almost%2040%25.
5. https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/textiles-in-europes-circular-economy
6. https://www.oxfam.org.uk/media/press-releases/preloved-fashion-can-make-us-feel-just-as-happy-as-a-brand-new-item-says-oxfam-as-research-shows-that-the-thrill-of-buying-a-new-item-of-clothing-fades-after-just-four-wears/
7. https://housingmatters.urban.org/articles/millions-americans-live-near-toxic-waste-sites-how-does-affect-their-health
8. https://www.originafrica.co.uk/blogs/news/the-or-foundation
9. https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/eu-exports-of-used-textiles
10. https://metro.co.uk/2022/03/30/fast-fashion-is-wreaking-havoc-on-chiles-atacama-desert-16366080/
11. http://changingmarkets.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Trashion-Report-Web-Final.pdf
12. https://textileexchange.org/app/uploads/2022/10/Textile-Exchange_PFMR_2022.pdf
13. https://enveurope.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12302-020-00447-x
14. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/04/microplastics-lungs-living-people/
15. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/microplastics-in-humans-baby-placenta-b2252375.html
16. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/07/microplastics-human-breast-milk-first-time
17. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/24/microplastics-found-in-human-blood-for-first-time
18. https://www.instagram.com/p/CpVKkGCt7-Q/ 
19. https://www.tiktok.com/@andreacheong_?lang=en
20. https://www.instagram.com/andreacheong_/?hl=en
21. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52022DC0141
22.  https://circularsystems.com/texloop
23. https://infinitedfiber.com/blog/2022/04/01/infinna-achieves-99-recycled-content-certification-from-scs-global-services/
24. https://www.letsrecycle.com/news/fibre-to-fibre-recycling-hindered-by-sorting-capacity/
25. https://trexproject.eu/about-us/