Clothing-tracking study exposed an unexpected blind spot

A Nordic study set out to discover what happens to used clothes after export. Instead, it exposed an unexpected weakness in the method used to follow them.

GPS devices can show where a tracker travels. But they may fail to establish what happens to the garment it follows, raising a wider question about how much tracking investigations can really prove.

Tracking devices come in different shapes and sizes. This is one example of a small tracking tag that can be attached to or concealed inside a garment to follow its movements.

The answer the researchers hoped to find

The researchers hoped to establish where exported garments ended up and what happened to them. Their study, conducted by Eunomia and Mepex, placed trackers in about 200 garments from five Nordic countries.

It mapped parts of the international trading routes, but could not reliably establish whether the clothes were ultimately sold, repaired, reused or discarded. Reuse News reported on the study here.

Trackers may become detached, damaged or travel separately from the clothes. Even when attached, a location signal cannot tell whether an item is in storage, on sale or discarded. Verifying its fate requires evidence beyond GPS coordinates.

Earlier investigations drew stronger conclusions

In 2023, Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet tracked ten garments collected by H&M. Five reached Africa, and the investigation reported that nine of the ten showed no signs of being reused. But a tracker’s journey, without independent verification of what happened to the garment, cannot establish that it was not reused.

The same year, Changing Markets tracked 21 garments returned to fashion retailers. Four reached African markets, and the findings were used to raise concerns about waste dumping.

Yet a recorded destination does not demonstrate that a garment was discarded. In both cases, claims about what happened to the clothing risk going beyond what location tracking alone can show.

A lesson beyond the Nordic study

The Nordic researchers did not obtain the answers they hoped for. But perhaps their most consequential finding is methodological: GPS trackers can help map trade routes, while providing weak stand-alone evidence of whether clothes become waste.

That distinction matters when tracking investigations influence public perceptions or proposals to restrict exports. Where a device last reported from is not necessarily where a garment ended up — still less proof of its environmental fate.