Redefining used textiles and textile waste

A large share of discarded textiles collected in the EU is exported to African and Asian countries, where local communities are left to bear the social and environmental costs of disposal.

In this joint position paper with ECOS, we outline policy recommendations for the EU to reshape the textile trade and take responsibility for its own textile waste.

As the EU develops new rules on textile waste management, it is time to ensure that Extended Producer Responsibility schemes effectively support the regions heavily impacted by used textile exports from the EU, to tighten up the rules around the murky export trade, and to reduce the excessive oversupply of new textiles produced every year in the first place.