With food prices and energy bills soaring, the harsh reality is that many households have far less disposable income to spend on the latest clothes. Space in wardrobes and drawers is not being cleared to make way for new garments, with the result that collection volumes for most textiles recyclers were significantly below average in 2022. Sorting facility operators have been forced to introduce lower capacity utilization rates and have also been hampered by a shortage of workers to fill vacant positions.

Last year also reflected how our sector can be vulnerable to geopolitical developments, such as the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Both countries have been major outlets over the years for second-hand clothing, including some of the best quality items our industry has to offer. Exporters’ sales prospects have been damaged and, in some cases, alternative markets have had to be sought.

Overall, however, we have been seeing good demand and higher prices for used textiles. Equally helpfully, we are witnessing greater awareness among textile producers, brands and retailers of the need for recycling, resulting in an explosion of related initiatives. At our most recent BIR Convention meeting in Barcelona, Maud Hardy of producer responsibility organization Refashion pointed by way of example to an environmental impact grading system in France to promote greener product design. And Erik Koep of Worn Again Technologies (a developer of polymer recycling processes for non-reusable textiles) told us that technologies had not been available in the past to capitalize on demand for sustainability but that these were now starting to come on line. The necessary investment and demand momentum would quickly follow once customers saw that fully-circular materials were available, he insisted.

In truth, much good work has been done but much remains to be achieved; crucially, only approximately 1-2% of used textiles currently follow a circular recycling route.

Therefore, the release in March last year of the EU’s “Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles” shone a timely light on our sector. Its headline aim is to ensure that, by 2030, textile products placed on the EU market are long-lived, recyclable, made as far as possible of recycled fibres and free of hazardous substances, with specific measures including eco-design requirements, clearer information for consumers, a Digital Product Passport and a mandatory EU extended producer responsibility scheme. The Strategy also confirms that all local authorities within the EU should have separate collections of textiles in place by 2025.

These are ambitious steps. And crucially from the perspective of our own sector, this journey must be undertaken in collaboration with industry professionals in order to ensure, for example, that collections are carried out in such a way as to maintain reusable value. Encouragingly in this regard, the EU has agreed to consider a requirement for preparation of reuse as
a priority for such collections. Our industry performs a vital task with an expertise developed over many generations and so our input is absolutely essential to the success of this push to achieve circularity.

All the data underline why reuse and recycling are so important. Taking Europe as an example, its consumption of textiles still has the fourth highest impact on the environment and climate change after food, housing and mobility. A recent life-
cycle assessment commissioned by the European textile reuse and recycling industry confirms the environmental impact of reusing textiles is 70 times lower than that of producing new clothing. Carbon dioxide emission savings are particularly eye-catching, amounting to 3 kg for each and every high- to medium-quality item of clothing that is reused. Water requirement for reuse is a meagre 0.01% of what it would be to produce a new garment.

The same life-cycle assessment also debunks the myth that exports of used clothing are damaging to the environment simply because of the associated transport emissions. The study found that the environmental impact of even long-haul transportation of used clothing is “trivial” compared to that entailed in producing a new garment.

For years, generations even, we have been urging policy-makers and regulators to recognize the importance of the used textiles management hierarchy. Given all the latest research and evidence, its rightful place is at the heart of all sustainability strategies.