The EU has banned the destruction of textiles and footwear. A briefing from the European Environment Agency (EEA) – The destruction of returned and unsold textiles in Europe’s circular economy – sets out the industry landscape, in turn building on another EEA report: Volumes and destruction of returned and unsold textiles in Europe’s circular economy.
Key points
- In Europe, around 4-9% of textile products for sale are destroyed before use, equating to 264,000 – 594,000 tonnes.
- 1 in 5 garments sold online is returned; up to three times higher than for products sold in physical stores. Around 22-43% of returned clothing bought online gets destroyed.
- 21% of clothes are unsold, but sources include returned clothes in this figure.
You can find a wealth of further statistics and definitions of terms from the report here.
Source
The destruction of returned and unsold textiles in Europe’s circular economy, European Environment Agency, 2024-03-04
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