Why is textile policy focusing on the smallest part of the problem?

In recent years, regulation of used clothing has moved rapidly up the political agenda. At the same time, a growing number of regulatory processes are focused on what happens after garments are discarded, while the questions of overproduction and overconsumption remain largely unresolved. This imbalance is striking in climate terms.

The textile sector is estimated to account for roughly 2–4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, with most of the impact occurring upstream in fibre production, processing, dyeing and manufacturing. The climate impact linked to what happens after a garment is discarded represents only a marginal share of that footprint, yet it is precisely this part of the system that current regulatory efforts are focusing on.

The textile sector is estimated to account for roughly 2–4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions

Export rules are tightening. Textile shipments face greater scrutiny under the EU Waste Shipment Regulation. And under the Basel Convention, technical discussions are exploring whether certain second-hand textile exports should be classified as waste.Taken together, these developments signal a clear shift. Reuse and second-hand clothing have become central objects of textile governance.

Why are second-hand textile flows becoming a focus of textile policy?

Several dynamics appear to converge.

One is institutional. Waste regulation is an established policy domain with existing legal tools and administrative structures. Expanding those frameworks to include textiles is considerably easier than attempting to regulate production volumes in a globalised industry.

Visibility also matters.

Global flows of used clothing are highly tangible. Images of large volumes of garments arriving in markets in Africa or Asia have become powerful symbols in debates about textile waste. Production systems, by contrast, are geographically distant and embedded in complex supply chains.

Advocacy has also shaped the agenda. In recent years, several NGOs have framed global second-hand trade as an environmental burden for importing countries. These narratives have contributed to growing political momentum around export controls and classification debates within EU and Basel policy processes.

Finally, focusing on second-hand flows allows policymakers to demonstrate action on textile waste without confronting some of the more politically difficult questions surrounding production scale, consumption patterns and trade policy.

Together, these dynamics help explain why reuse has moved to the centre of textile policy discussions.

But they lead to a further question: If new regulatory attention is built on the assumption that second-hand flows represent a significant environmental problem, how strong is the evidence behind that assumption?

This questions are examined further here:

How robust is the evidence behind environmental claims in the second-hand clothing trade?

Tougher rules for discarded clothes — but textile production volumes remain outside EU climate control