Text highlights textile recycling issues, lack of fiber-to-fiber industry, and necessary systemic changes across Europe.
🔗 Read the article on efsyn.gr
[This is an automatically generated summary, for reference only]
Thousands of textile collection bins have appeared across Athens, symbolizing a move towards circular economy and waste reduction. However, the process often stops at the bin, raising questions about what truly happens to the collected clothing—how much is recycled into new fibers, how much goes to second-hand markets, and how much ends up in landfills or low-value products. While Recycom reports that a significant amount of textile waste has avoided landfills since 2012, a complex chain remains unresolved: there is insufficient domestic “fiber-to-fiber” industry in Greece and other European countries to convert used fabrics into new fibers, leading much material to be exported for lower labor costs or low-value use.
Globally, the fashion industry is environmentally damaging, consuming vast resources and contributing significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. The EU aims for all textiles sold within its market by 2030 to be durable, repairable, recyclable, made from recycled fibers, free of hazardous substances, and produced ethically. This requires moving away from fast fashion towards high-quality, long-lasting garments supported by accessible reuse and repair services.
Different countries show varying approaches: Spain has integrated sustainable textile strategies into its national plans, implementing Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and fostering a circular supply chain alongside a growing second-hand market. Germany excels in collection systems but lags in high-quality recycling. Croatia shows increasing separate collection rates, with most collected waste being recovered through energy recovery or reuse rather than landfilling. In contrast, Balkan countries like Bulgaria and Romania have poor sorting and recycling performance despite some legislative changes.
Effective solutions require changing the entire ecosystem around the bins: establishing high-tech national sorting centers, developing a European “fiber-to-fiber” network, ensuring EPR funds meaningful actions, educating consumers, and crucially, providing public transparency regarding where every kilogram of textile waste ends up.
