2023-11-04 08:00:08
In recent years, alarming images of clothes piling up in open landfills outside European borders have continued to multiply. The French government committed, during debates around the green industry bill promulgated on October 23, to fight against this phenomenon. But there is still a long way to go.
Every year, on a global scale, according to figures from the World Trade Organization, 5.3 million tonnes of used textiles and shoes are exported, mainly from three regions: the European Union (EU) , the United States and a third emerging pole made up of China and Pakistan. And France? Its exports of “second-hand clothes”, according to customs statisticsrepresented 166,000 tonnes in 2021, or 3% of the world total.
Abandoned on landfills
The export of second-hand clothes is today an integral part of the French and European system for managing the end of life of textiles. First, local demand on the reuse market is too low to be able to offer a second life in Europe to all the collected clothing.
As a result, collection and sorting operators, more than 70% of whom are part of the social and solidarity economy, are required to export the majority of these collected clothes and thus meet the needs of the international second-hand clothes market. As industrial recycling solutions are almost non-existent on a European scale, these textiles and shoes would otherwise end up incinerated.
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It is clear that this model has reached its limits: of the total second-hand clothes exported, hundreds of tonnes are far too often found abandoned on open-air landfills several thousand kilometers from Europe. This situation is no longer acceptable at a time when the climate emergency requires: the circular economy must establish itself as the reference model.
The expectations vis-à-vis players in the textile and footwear sector on this subject are legitimate. It is urgent to support the sector’s transition towards a 100% circular economy to stop the pollution induced by this insufficiently controlled export and by the lack of waste management infrastructure in destination countries.
Regulatory framework
We must also act to restore confidence to the general public who could turn away from social and solidarity associations and refuse to deposit their clothes in the collection bins installed on public roads. However, these branches are key players in the collection, reuse and sorting of used textiles and shoes in France.
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