Experts call for fashion waste overhaul

A new study, published in Nature Cities, has analysed what happens to donated clothes and other textiles in Amsterdam, Austin, Berlin, Geneva, Luxembourg, Manchester, Melbourne, Oslo and Toronto.

Across these western cities, the researchers identified a pattern of textile waste being exported, going to landfill or being dumped in the environment.

Annually, global textile waste weighs 92 million tonnes — and this could double by 2030.

While charity shops handle a large amount of used clothes, the study found that because many are poor quality and there is little financial benefit to managing them locally, charities trade some valuable items and discard or export the rest.

Overconsumption and oversupply were the main drivers of the cities’ textile waste, causing the export of between 33% (Australia) and 97% (Norway) of donated clothes.

In Melbourne, charities export high-quality, often vintage, second-hand clothes to Europe, forcing the city’s independent resale businesses to import similar apparel back from Europe or the United States.

However, this is a dwindling market, with charities and collectors reporting the plummeting quality of garments over the past 15 to 20 years, which has decreased resale potential.

Study co-author Dr Yassie Samie, from RMIT University, said local governments and charities need to coordinate more to manage textile waste.

“We’re used to charities doing the heavy lifting, but they’ve been unable to fully handle the volume of donated clothes for a long time now,” Samie said.

“Charities are driven by social welfare values and need to raise funds for their programs.

“However, their operations are ill-equipped to deal with the volume of used textiles that need to be reused and recycled.”

Samie said that, given the role of charities within communities, it is essential that they expand beyond direct resale in second-hand shops and explore other business models, such as swapping and repair centres.

Need for local collaboration

Most local governments in the cities studied did not get involved in textile waste beyond providing public spaces and licences for charity bins and commercial resellers.

Across cities like Melbourne, local governments send dumped textiles directly to landfill, instead of diverting to recycling or reuse facilities, or other local alternatives.

“This indicates the lack of mechanism and incentives in place to drive real systemic change,” Samie said.

In Amsterdam, on the other hand, the municipality manages collection and sorting of unwanted clothes and encourages collection of all textiles, including non-reusable ones.

Additionally, from January 2025, European Union Member States must establish separate collection systems for used textiles.

But the biggest per-capita discarders of textile waste, Australia and the US, have no such regulation.

A ban on fashion advertising?

Samie said it is important to incentivise promotion of local alternatives to fast fashion, including reselling, swapping and repairing.

“Sustainable fashion initiatives like second-hand retailers struggle to compete with fashion brands’ big marketing budgets and convenient locations,” she said.

“Fast fashion alternatives exist but they are under-promoted, despite their potential to significantly reduce cities’ textile waste.”

To counter this, the study’s authors have called for a ban on fashion advertising in cities.

“A ban on fashion advertisements would give more space to promote more sustainable alternatives,” Samie said.

France recently introduced a ban on advertising ultrafast fashion; each item will also come with a penalty of up to €10 by 2030.

Samie said she would like to work with local governments to find better uses for discarded textiles.

Image credit: iStock.com/KatarzynaBialasiewicz