T E X T I L E I N D U S T R Y N E W S O N R E U S E , R E C Y C L I N G A N D C I R C U L A R I T Y

THE PARADOX IN TEXTILE CLIMATE POLICY

Tougher rules for used clothes, but the main climate problem lies elsewhere

Across Europe and in international forums, new rules are tightening how used clothing is collected, sorted and shipped. Governments are building systems to manage what happens after garments are discarded. Yet most of the sector’s climate impact occurs long before clothes are thrown away — and that part of the system remains structurally harder to regulate.

FULL STORY HERE

Across Europe and in international forums, new rules are tightening how used clothing is collected, sorted and shipped. Governments are building systems to manage what happens after garments are discarded. Yet most of the sector’s climate impact occurs long before clothes are thrown away — and that part of the system remains structurally harder to regulate.

FULL STORY HERE

One simple code that defines the future of textile circularity

Second-hand clothing is not only a question of consumption or charity, but increasingly of trade governance: who gets to define what counts as a product, what becomes waste, and which textile flows are allowed to move across borders. Right now, one of the most important bottlenecks for circular textile trade sits in something as technical as a customs number.

February 22, 2026

February 10, 2026

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They went searching for textile waste but what did they actually find?

Operation Demeter XI marked a shift. For the first time, textiles were treated as a priority waste stream in the World Customs Organization’s global enforcement effort against illegal waste trafficking.

The result: 1,176 tonnes of textile waste were reportedly intercepted or returned across 25 operations. But, what did they actually find?

The global fight over how to define second-hand clothing intensifies

Second hand clothing has long been treated as something informal. A social good, a thrift economy, a circular alternative to buying new. Now it is moving into a very different world: trade compliance and regulatory classification.

This week, a UN-backed study supported by the European Union is set to receive renewed attention as it is formally highlighted at an OECD policy forum on 10 February.

February 5, 2026

How Kenya and Ghana became the centre of Europe’s second-hand debate

Europe’s debate over textile waste and circularity is increasingly framed around responsibility: what happens to unwanted clothing once it leaves EU borders, and who bears the economic and environmental cost of overproduction. Yet the countries most often placed at the centre of this debate are not European. They are Kenya and Ghana.

February 10, 2026

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The elusive truth behind the second-hand export debate | Part 1

The amazing story about the mountains of textile waste in Ghana. Mountains that doesn´t exist, but nevertheless have been broadcasted all around the world as a major problem. Unfortunately these claims has also influenced policymakers and politicians within the EU, which has led to new regulations that actually threatens the circular system of clothes.