Fashion’s overlooked last strike on the environment: the lesser-known destiny of discarded clothes.

On Ghana’s beaches, abandoned garments resurface, washing away any fleeting excitement we may have experienced while purchasing our affordable and easily disposable tops from fast fashion giants such as Primark, Zara, H&M, or online platforms like Shein and Asos. How did they arrive there? Brace yourself for the shocking journey into the hidden world of discarded clothes.

Fashion’s non offsetable Footprint:

It’s no secret that the fashion industry and fast fashion in particular, with its fast-changing pace, growing business of cheap, fossil fuel-based apparels have terrible consequences on both the environment and people who are “paid” to make them. To showcase these, the fashion industry systematically ranks top 5 in a lot of grim categories: 4th largest environmental impact, 3rd highest pressure on freshwater resources, and 5th highest use of raw materials AND greenhouse gas emissions. These figures are even more concerning when put in the perspective of current trends. We’re using clothes less and less while the sales have grown much faster than population or GDP.

And this trend is not weakening, with projections predicting a 4.63%^[1] compound annual Growth Rate (CAGR) for the apparel industry for the next 5 years, which will clearly aggravate what we see happening at the end of the line: a growing textile waste crisis.

The textile waste crisis.

Contrary to popular belief, the fate of discarded garments is anything but a seamless cycle of reuse or recycling. 87% of discarded clothes —equivalent to a massive 21 billion tons—ultimately find their way into landfills or are incinerated, having huge detrimental effects on the environment. If synthetic break down in microplastics and release toxins in the soils, natural fibres are just as harmful when landfilled, releasing methane while decomposing (Chopra & co, 2023). Methane being the second most important greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide, with a warming potential of 28 times more over a hundred-year horizon and 82 times more over twenty years.  

Great! Now that we've got the basics down, let’s look at Ireland’s contribution to this global issue.

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The statistics are staggering, with Ireland alone discarding 170,000 tons of textiles annually, or 35 kg per capita, surpassing the European average by a significant margin (12kg). The troubles begin at the collection stage, where 65% of discarded clothing face disposal in general waste bins. This stems from both a lack of public awareness regarding the environmental impact of modern clothing and the absence of a designated waste stream for textiles. Shockingly, current definitions fail to acknowledge textile waste as a distinct category. However, a positive development is on the horizon as a European Directive mandates the separate collection of used textiles starting this year (2024). It's crucial to note the distinction between used textiles and waste, a point that holds significant importance as we delve further into the discussion.  

To envision the fate of separately collected textiles, we need to look at the current process for managing the 35% of collected discarded clothes.  

These textiles are typically donated to charities or gathered by profit-driven commercial collectors who own most textile banks across the country. Donated clothes have a higher likelihood of being reused, particularly through the efficient network of Irish charity shops, contributing to a commendable national reuse rate of 20% of the 60,000 tons collected (7% of the total amount of discarded clothes). However, the capacity of charity shops is by far surpassed by the volumes of discards. The majority of collected clothes is in fact handled by commercial collectors. Despite occasional partnerships with charities, these profit-focused entities primarily engage in bulk collection and exportation, lacking a focus on reuse or recycling, and often little to no sorting.

The Export Ambiguity – the trade of textile waste.

Here lies the crux of the issue—companies exporting vast quantities of "used" clothing under the single label "reusable." Despite claims of global repurposing, the process enters a complex international market.  

The first stop is European resalers, who sort for the highest quality, representing only 10% of the massive textile volumes.

Some items are also inexplicably destroyed at certain sites, with investigations revealing that, among brand new or reusable items sent through brand take-back schemes, a third were destroyed, incinerated, or downcycled.

“a new pair of trousers from Zara,[…] was within a week transported to the SOEX processing plant in Bitterfeld-Wolfen. Despite being in excellent condition with a clothing tag still attached (see photo), the tracker went off at this facility, indicating that within a month of drop-off, the trousers were destroyed, likely shredded, at the facility, rather than being diverted for direct reuse or resale.”^[2]

This shows a disregard for the waste hierarchy to reuse first before recycling of incinerate.

It's crucial to add that textile recycling remains highly limited. The global capacity for recycling clothing into new clothing is a mere 1%^[3], as reported by the European Parliament. Moreover, most recycling is, in fact, downcycling, estimated at around 15%.

This leads us to the next step. The vast majority of post-consumer textiles will be deemed unfit for Western markets, sent to second-hand markets in the Global South under the label "reusable." While these markets have long been established in countries like Kenya and Ghana, a new challenge arises from the decreasing quality and unprecedented surge in waste within the received bales. According to a report by the Or Foundation:

Only 18% of these bales (which necessitate payment before opening) are actually reusable.

Another portion undergoes repairs and washing, involving costs for market workers who seek to reimburse their initial investment (without mentioning a minimal wage). Despite efforts to upcycle creatively reuse, over 40% is valueless—stained, torn, or intentionally damaged—resulting in disposal on the ground or utilization as fuel, thereby releasing harmful toxins. I

nvestigations such as "Dead White Man’s Clothes" and "Trashion" bring light to these intolerable social and environmental impacts caused by this waste: polluting waterways, soils, and adversely affecting people's health. We are far from the picture depicted by stakeholders in the sector, talking about “redistributing” clothes to developing countries with a “growing demand”. Most of the time we’re not supplying them with wearable items but with waste which they have even less capacity to deal with. European textile collectors across Europe love to say they diverted X amount of clothes from landfills. The question being: whose landfills?  

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