Europe wants to clean up its growing surplus of textile waste, driven by increased consumption of low-value fast fashion. Some say the market is collapsing under stress.
On Monday, Europe’s two main recycling organizations issued a stark warning. They said the sector was facing an “unprecedented crisis, even more severe than during the coronavirus pandemic.” According to the group, since spring, the price of sorted used clothes has become cheaper than the processing cost. Without support, the industry would face “widespread bankruptcy”, they said.
The rag trade is under attack from many directions. Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have disrupted major markets, increased logistics costs and devastated an industry that operates on razor-thin margins. Increased regulatory oversight has increased uncertainty about how the industry will operate in the future. But the main culprit is that low-value, ultra-fast fashion is flowing into the system, disrupting the delicate economics of trade.
“This is a perfect storm,” said Mohammed Patel, business development manager at UK industry group Textile Recycling Association (TRA).
Scoop up the “cream”
Europe’s rag trade was always a game of quantity. Traders collect and sort tons of raw materials in search of the so-called “cream” – the finest and most valuable products. This process is labor intensive and therefore expensive. And if the mixture does not contain enough cream, traders will not be able to recover their costs.
This issue is becoming increasingly problematic as the constant fluctuations of the low-cost fast fashion market reduce the value of the clothing that comes back into the system.
“The volume continues to rise, but the overall value is falling,” said François Suchet, managing director at consulting firm Swanstan. “It was only a matter of time before we hit a breaking point.”
And it’s not just less premium product available, traders say, but also an increasing proportion of materials returning to markets with no secondary market. Ten years ago, an average of about 67 percent of materials collected in Scandinavia, Germany, Austria and Italy could be reused, but now that percentage is 64 percent, says Humana People, an Italian used clothing federation. said Carina Bolin, president of Two People. Bulgaria.
“[There’s now] There are simply too many low quality [traders] cannot be migrated,” TRA CEO Alan Wheeler said in an email.
geopolitical storm
But it is not just supply issues that are upsetting the delicate economic balance of Europe’s rag trade.
The largest market for high-value goods that maintained trade was Eastern Europe, but the trade route is now cut off due to the war in Ukraine. Exports of both new and used clothing from China to African markets are surging, traders said, as competition in other key markets intensifies. Meanwhile, conflicts in the Middle East have increased freight rates and delivery times to major sorting hubs such as Dubai and Pakistan, where many products that cannot be reused end up being sent for processing. It is being
“We’re a low-margin, high-sale business,” says Stephen Bethell, co-founder of Bank & Vogue, a major player in the global used clothing market that moves more than 4 million clothing items a week. “These things add up.”
The trade itself is controversial, with aid groups warning that host countries are becoming dumping grounds for rich countries’ fashion waste. Exactly how much of the used clothing exported to markets in Africa and Latin America ends up as trash on arrival is an increasingly heated debate, but it’s true that exactly how much of the used clothing exported to African and Latin American markets ends up being trash on arrival. Piles of imported fashion waste and swells of tangled textiles on Ghanaian beaches are powerful visual symbols of Africa and Latin America. The high environmental cost of disposable fashion.
“What European exporters are feeling today is only a fraction of the misery.” [traders in Ghana’s Kantamanto market have] “It has long been seen as a market for European sorters and exporters to receive items that they would not be able to profit from in their own countries,” said Liz, co-founder and executive director of The Or Foundation, a nonprofit that works with the organization.・Mr. Ricketts says. The Cantamant community is one of the world’s largest antique markets.
Regulatory wildcard
Amid these complex market trends, how Europe’s efforts to crack down on textile waste will play out remains something of a wild card.
Tackling this problem is a key focus for EU policymakers, which recognizes the sector as one of the most polluting in the region. Under the next regulation, member states will have to put systems in place to collect textile waste by next year, with Brussels planning a so-called extended producer responsibility scheme that would make brands bear the costs of managing textile waste. I’m working on it.
Industry lobbies are calling for more support for the sector, including short-term financial incentives and greater investment in recycling technology and infrastructure, while discouraging policies that could disrupt trade or increase market pressure. I’m warning you.
But advocates warn that unless regulators also target increased consumption of fast fashion, they will only put a band-aid over the problem.
“Fast fashion is a business model that emphasizes quantity over value, and this business model is killing the global second-hand goods market,” Ricketts said. “It would be a joke if European consumers thought that if a button came off, a garment was not worth the time it took to sew it back together. It just doesn’t have enough value embedded in it.” Collection, multiple sorting, export, cleaning, marketing, and recycling, including resale, are mandatory. ”
