Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association

Textile circularity in Europe is entering a more demanding phase, as policy ambition collides with weak infrastructure and commercial uncertainty. At Antwerp’s SMART gathering, the discussion turns less on whether circular systems are needed than on whether reuse, sorting, recycling and trade can be made to function together under mounting regulatory and market pressure across the continent.

Debate over used clothing exports often portrays receiving countries as passive endpoints for unwanted waste. The Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association (SMART) argues research across African and Latin American markets shows garments arrive largely fit for resale or reuse. Consumers buy them for price, quality and practical value.

The United States generates 17 million tonnes of textile waste annually, and the policy frameworks designed to address it are arriving faster than the infrastructure built to support them. California's SB 707 requires textile stewardship plans to be operational by 2030, yet the recovery network it depends on remains anchored in international reuse trade that the law was not designed to protect—and may inadvertently disrupt.

Efforts to regulate global textile waste are reshaping debates over who defines sustainability and who bears its costs. A UNEP initiative to standardise “waste” classifications has triggered backlash from reuse economies, exposing how circularity policies can threaten livelihoods and distort trade while ignoring the real drivers of overproduction in wealthier manufacturing nations.

As international agencies develop new criteria for textile “waste,” concerns are emerging over how these definitions affect circular trade and livelihoods. SMART, the US-based association for secondary materials and recycled textiles, urges clarity and inclusiveness. Its Director of Government Affairs, Jessica Franken, stresses that credible environmental frameworks require full transparency and peer-reviewed data.

There is feasibility and value in engaging in circular, textile-to-textile recycling systems for cotton, as also benefits for all involved stakeholders, affirms Accelerating Circularity's much-anticipated Global Cotton Report.