Labour exploitation and environmental harm remain embedded in segments of the garment recycling economy, according to the OECD’s latest assessment. The report links widespread informality and constrained margins to unsafe facilities, wage insecurity and limited oversight. It also identifies occupational hazards, chemical exposure and criminal waste practices as recurring risk factors across recycling operations.
- Informal employment and thin profit margins heighten vulnerability to unsafe conditions, wage insecurity and labour exploitation across collection and sorting activities.
- Mechanical shredding, chemical handling and fire-prone facilities create significant occupational health and safety risks for workers in recycling systems.
- Opaque waste flows, weak enforcement and fragmented oversight elevate exposure to illegal dumping, waste misclassification and organised criminal involvement.
- These assertions have been made in the paper ‘Due Diligence On Recycling Processes In The Garment And Footwear Sector’. The paper is based on research, expert interviews and informal consultations conducted by the OECD Centre for Responsible Business Conduct with support from Due Diligence Design and was funded by the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management and the European Commission.
INFORMALITY AND WAGE PRESSURES: Informal employment and low margins shape risk exposure in garment and footwear recycling, with labour-intensive collection and sorting often carried out outside legal protections. The paper cites an estimate that about 80% of recycling jobs are informal, increasing vulnerability where oversight and grievance channels are weak. Many informal waste workers operate outdoors or in poorly protected environments, heightening exposure to extreme heat and climate-related risks, while constrained margins limit investment in safety and environmental controls.
- Informal work settings can heighten exposure to unsafe conditions because workers are often unregistered, unprotected by labour law, and reliant on intermediaries for access to jobs.
- The paper links informality to forced labour risk, noting how recruitment fees, debt dependency and restricted mobility can increase vulnerability among migrant workers.
- Child labour is documented across sorting, cleaning, bleaching and mechanical recycling, with low-skill tasks sometimes generating near-adult earnings that incentivise family participation.
- Wage outcomes are depressed in waste management and recycling, with cross-country data showing earnings commonly far below national averages and sometimes below minimum wage levels.
- In textile waste sorting, value capture is uneven, with evidence showing that sorting can increase product value between 1.5 and 4 times while workers receive less than 5% of final resale value.
OCCUPATIONAL AND CHEMICAL HAZARDS: Recycling operations introduce process-specific occupational hazards that differ in intensity and profile from linear manufacturing. Mechanical shredding, repetitive sorting and heavy lifting expose workers to injury and chronic strain, particularly in manual and informal settings. The paper also flags fire-prone storage facilities and chemical handling practices that increase health risks where protective systems, ventilation and compliance controls are limited.
- Mechanical recycling processes generate fine dust and fibre particles, increasing respiratory exposure and reported cases of back pain and musculoskeletal strain among workers.
- Textile warehouses and makeshift sheds, often lacking fire prevention systems, heighten the risk of fires due to the flammable nature of stored materials.
- Chemical exposure arises in both mechanical and chemical recycling, especially where effluents are untreated and protective equipment is inconsistently used.
- Post-consumer textiles may contain legacy restricted substances, including chemicals subject to regulatory alerts in the European Union, creating exposure risks when chemical histories are unknown and testing is limited.
- The section also notes community health implications when bleaching water and contaminated wastewater are discharged into open drains or local waterways.
ENVIRONMENTAL AND WASTE CRIME RISKS:Environmental degradation and governance failures compound labour and safety risks in recycling value chains. The paper links improper disposal and weak oversight to soil, air and water contamination, while cross-border waste flows and misclassification of waste occur under fragmented enforcement regimes. Criminal activity in collection and sorting networks further undermines traceability and regulatory compliance across textile recycling systems.
- Textile waste sent to landfill or openly burned can release methane, toxic fumes and chemical leachates, affecting surrounding communities and ecosystems.
- Discarded garments dumped in rivers may release microfibres and chemical residues, with potential long-term effects on biodiversity and water quality.
- Transporting used textiles across continents for sorting, resale or disposal contributes additional emissions to recycling supply chains, particularly in cross-border waste trade contexts.
- Energy-intensive recycling processes can amplify greenhouse gas impacts where electricity generation relies heavily on fossil fuels rather than renewable energy sources.
The paper highlights waste crime risks, including illegal dumping, falsified documentation, bribery and organised networks exploiting opaque waste flows.
