A report from IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute highlights both the promise and the fragility of today’s international textile reuse system. While the study documents a well-organised value chain linking used-clothing collections to thriving second-hand markets, it also underscores that regulatory, logistical and political pressures in Europe risk undermining one of the few proven circular models that actually works.

A group of members of the European Parliament is pressing the European Commission to take immediate and decisive action to curb the rise of ultra-fast fashion in the EU market. In a priority question, MEPs from the PPE group ask how the Commission plans to use trade and regulatory tools to protect Member States from unfair competition and non-compliant textiles.

"It is fast fashion - driven by overproduction and throwaway culture - that fuels the textile waste crisis. Yet blame has shifted onto a sector that actively reduces waste - the second-hand sector. The claim that this sector exports waste is not supported by data, and it defies logic."

When the EU decided that all member states must start collecting textiles separately by 2025, the aim was clear: to reduce one of the most environmentally harmful waste streams and create conditions for reuse and recycling. But the first attempts in several countries have backfired massively and actually worsened the problem. At the same time there is a constant push for the false narrative about textile waste from second-hand export to African countries. This obscures the vi

Hundreds of dealers and traders in the second-hand clothing industry in Accra, Ghana entered the streets Thursday to protest against what they call unbalanced and false narratives about the industry. In the crosshairs of the protesters' anger is the OR Foundation, an organization that has for several years claimed that the second-hand industry is exacerbating the waste problems in Ghana. The Ghana Used Clothing Dealers Association issued a statement in connection with the eve