Mountains of discarded clothes grows and collector appeals to authorities
- Thomas Lundkvist
- Apr 15
- 2 min read
One of the organisations collecting the most clothing in Sweden risks going under due to new rules on textile collection. Yesterday, Human Bridge in a pressrelease announced that the pressure they are under may soon force them to limit their collection operations. This would further worsen an already serious problem with textile waste in Sweden.
Since the turn of the year, Swedish authorities have implemented an EU directive stipulating that textile waste may no longer be disposed of in household rubbish. As a result, collection organisations such as Human Bridge have been flooded with textiles they struggle to handle.
Regulations surrounding textile waste and second-hand clothing have grown increasingly complex in recent years. And although these rules are intended to improve waste management, reduce negative climate impact, and stimulate a more circular economy, the consequences now appear to be quite the opposite.
Previously, organisations collecting clothes would sell them on to sorting companies, usually based in Europe. These companies would sort the garments into hundreds of different categories and then sell them on to domestic second-hand markets or export them to other countries. One of the EU’s aims has been to limit the export of unusable clothing that risks ending up in landfills in African countries—despite there being no real evidence that such exports actually take place. See link below. Nevertheless, new regulations have been pushed through.
The new rules affect collection organisations in two ways:
They can no longer sell the collected clothes to other EU countries unless they have first been sorted. Unsorted clothing is now considered waste. Sorting clothing is extremely costly, as it requires a great deal of manpower, and this alone makes it difficult for collection organisations or companies to remain financially viable.
When consumers are no longer allowed to dispose of textile waste in household rubbish, the proportion of textiles collected that cannot be reused increases, placing even greater pressure on sorting facilities.
Human Bridge is now appealing to Swedish municipalities to help improve the situation. If collection organisations in Sweden are unable to manage this, the mountains of textiles will become colossal, usable clothing will be incinerated, and all ambitions for better, climate-friendly management will quite literally go up in smoke.
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