Sweden’s recycling centers are overflowing with clothes after an EU-wide ban this year on throwing away textiles, leaving overwhelmed municipalities eager to have fast fashion giants take responsibility.
The aim is to promote circular waste management, where textiles are sorted and reused, or recycled if they are not too damaged.
Once the textiles are sorted, some 60 to 70% is designated for reuse, and 20 to 30% for recycling as padding, isolation or composite materials.
However, a lack of infrastructure in Sweden means used clothes are largely exported abroad, primarily to Lithuania, where they are sorted, reused, or burned for energy.
To make a t-shirt that weighs 135 grams (4.76 ounces), 2,500 liters (660 gallons) of water and one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of chemicals are needed, noted Yvonne Augustsson, advisor at the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.
“In Sweden, an article of clothing is used on average 30 times. If you double this to 60 times—which seems reasonable—you reduce the climate impact by half,” she said.