Second-hand clothes are moving into global waste. But the proof is still missing.

International waste regulators are moving closer to the question of used textiles. After a week of negotiations in Geneva, the issue is now firmly on the agenda for future global rules on waste exports. But one central question remains unresolved: what evidence shows that large-scale exports of unusable second-hand clothes are actually driving the textile waste problem?

If new rules are built on unclear or incomplete data, they could end up restricting a functioning reuse system without solving the real waste problem.

The Basel Convention regulates the international movement of hazardous and other wastes. At the latest round of negotiations in Geneva last week, used textiles and textile waste moved further into that global regulatory process. For most people outside environmental policy circles, it is an invisible process. But its decisions can have far-reaching consequences for global trade, including the trade in used goods, recyclable materials and waste.

The meeting did not decide new global controls for used clothes. But it did move the issue further into the Basel process. The question will now continue toward the next Conference of the Parties, COP18, in Panama in April 2027.

A clear divide over reuse and waste exports

The Geneva discussions exposed a clear divide.

On one side, several governments and environmental groups argue that today’s system leaves too much room for waste to be exported under the label of reuse. They want clearer international rules to distinguish reusable textiles from textile waste, and stronger controls to prevent importing countries from being left with material they cannot sell, recycle or manage safely.

On the other side, actors in the reuse and recycling sector warn that poorly designed rules could damage a circular trade system that already keeps garments in use, supports livelihoods and reduces demand for new production. They also strongly challenge the evidence behind the claim that second-hand exports are a major waste stream, pointing instead to studies, field observations and market data that suggest a very different picture: most exported second-hand clothing is commercially valuable, sorted for reuse and imported because there is demand for it. Their argument is not that textile waste should move freely, but that reusable second-hand clothes must not be swept into waste controls simply because they cross a border.

Reuse News found a weakly evidenced claim

Reuse News’ own investigations ahead of the Geneva meeting found that one of the central claims behind the policy pressure remains weakly evidenced: that large-scale exports of unusable second-hand clothes are being shipped to African countries under the cover of reuse.

Read more: How the myth of textile waste is reshaping a global circular system

In Ghana, one of the most frequently cited examples, the visible waste crisis documented by Reuse News was dominated by plastic and mixed municipal waste, not mountains of imported textile waste. Interviews and field observations also pointed to strong commercial incentives to import sellable clothes, not unusable waste.

Read more: What looks like mountains of textile waste, is actually not. It's plastic.

What happens next?

The issue is whether global waste rules should be reshaped around a claim that has still not been proven with robust, transparent and verifiable evidence. The Geneva meeting did not settle that question. But it made the next phase more important.

What happens next is therefore not just a technical follow-up. In the months leading up to COP18 in April, the key question will be whether the Basel process treats the evidence gap as a problem to be solved — or moves ahead on the assumption that the problem has already been proven.

Better definitions may be needed. But definitions built on weak evidence could turn a circular trade flow into a waste problem by regulation. If used textiles are now moving closer to global waste controls, the evidence must move just as quickly. Before second-hand clothes are treated as a waste problem, regulators need to prove what the problem actually is.

Written by

Thomas Lundkvist

Sources: Basel Convention Secretariat: “Used textiles and textile wastes: Note by the Secretariat”

IISD Earth Negotiations Bulletin: “Summary report 23–26 June 2026”

Environmental Investigation Agency: “Stitching up the textile loophole in the Basel Convention”