Roughly a quarter of the textile waste generated in the EU is collected for reuse and recycling with the rest ending up as mixed household waste, according to a new report.
- It found that the EU-27 generated an estimated total of 6.95 million tonnes of textile waste in 2020—around 16kg per person. Of this, 4.4kg per person were collected separately for reuse and recycling, and 11.6kg per person ended up in mixed household waste.
- The numbers are from the report Textile waste management in Europe's circular economy, published by the European Environment Agency’s European Topic Centre on Circular Economy and Resource Use (ETC CE). The report is largely based upon information derived from a questionnaire completed by 27 of the European Environment Agency’s member countries in 2023.
EFFECTIVENESS OF COLLECTION SYSTEMS: The average capture rate for textile waste in Europe is only 12%, indicating that the rest ends up in mixed municipal waste and is consequently landfilled or incinerated. These data show significant room for improvement in separate collection systems for textiles.
- Luxembourg (50%) and Belgium (50%) have the highest figures for collecting textiles separately, followed by the Netherlands (37%) and Austria (30%) (Figure 3). These countries offer diverse collection systems across various levels of urbanisation.
PRE-SORTING AT SOURCE: With the implementation of EU regulation on separate textile waste collection by 2025, the collection rates for textiles from households are expected to increase, though the overall quality of collected items may decrease.
- This is likely to reduce the incentive for reuse and could lead to more recycling—a less environmentally-sustainable option than reuse.
SORTING CAPACITIES: In 2020, 1.41 million tonnes of textiles were treated within the EU-27. However, in the same year, a greater volume of textiles was collected—amounting to 1.95 million tonnes. Both these figures exclude textile waste mixed with other waste. The discrepancy is most likely due to exports of textile waste for treatment outside the EU.
- The Netherlands and Poland are two of the countries which receive the most exported used and waste textiles. They have estimated annual sorting capacities of 200,000 tonnes and 300,000 tonnes, respectively.
- Poland and Czechia send a noteworthy share of textile waste to landfills. This is of concern since there is a risk that substantial amounts of separately-collected textile waste will end up being sent to landfills or incinerated unless there is timely upscaling of textile recycling capacity across the EU-27.
- At the same time, Germany, Poland and Lithuania are also major exporters of used and waste textiles to areas outside the EU. The fate of used textiles exported from the EU is highly uncertain.
RECYCLING CAPACITY: There are 17 textile recycling companies in Europe, which expect to recycle 1.25 million tonnes of fibres annually until 2025—1 million tonnes through mechanical recycling and 250,000 tonnes through chemical recycling.
- Most of the recycled fibres are downcycled into e.g. rags or insulation materials.
EXTENDED PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY FOR TEXTILES: Till now, an EPR system for textiles has only been mandatory in France, Hungary and the Netherlands, and voluntary in the Flanders region (Belgium).
- Additionally, Croatia mandates textile producers to facilitate the collection of the type of textile products that they put on the market.
- The fact that large amounts of used textiles are exported from the countries of collection generates specific barriers to effectively implementing EPR. Where textiles are being exported for reuse or waste treatment, EPR fees typically stay within the exporting countries.
- This deprives receiving countries, including third countries in Africa and Asia, of the financial support they need for end-of-life treatment. Hence, there is an option for a transition to so-called ‘Ultimate Producer Responsibility’ (UPR). The UPR system relies on high product traceability from exporting to importing countries and should help improve accountability for product producers and distributors.
- EPR schemes must promote the adoption of reuse and repair practices. However, establishing large-scale repair operations in European countries is a challenge because of commercial non-viability.
- This is primarily due to the combination of high labour costs and notably lower pricing for new products manufactured in, for example, Asia.
- Consequently, for a significant number of consumers, the more rational choice is to acquire new garments rather than pursue expensive repairs for lower-cost clothing.
- Subsidies for textile repairs funded through EPR fees, coupled with tax reductions on practices like repair and reuse, could potentially help bridge this gap.
The Authors: The authors of the report are Jana Deckers, Tom Duhoux, Sanna Due.
