{"id":11910,"date":"2026-08-19T08:45:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T06:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/erumgroup.com\/blog\/textile-waste-the-problem-fashion-cannot-ignore\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T11:33:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T09:33:31","slug":"textile-waste-the-problem-fashion-cannot-ignore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erumgroup.com\/en\/circular-thinking\/textile-waste-the-problem-fashion-cannot-ignore\/","title":{"rendered":"Textile waste: the problem fashion cannot ignore"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Textile waste has become one of the fashion industry’s greatest challenges. For years, the sector has grown under a logic defined by speed, constant collection turnover, and intensive resource consumption. The result is a global chain capable of producing, distributing, and selling on a large scale, but also of generating an enormous amount of waste. <\/p>\n\n
Every unsold garment, every defective piece, every fabric scrap, every withdrawn collection, and every product that ends up in a landfill is part of a broader problem. The issue is no longer just what happens to clothing at the end of its useful life. The real question is how everything that is part of the textile cycle is designed, produced, transported, used, recovered, and reintegrated into the system. <\/p>\n\n
That is where the change begins.<\/p>\n\n
Talking about textile waste means talking about environmental impact, but also about competitiveness, regulation, ecodesign, waste management, textile recycling, and the circular economy. An industry that wants to keep growing needs to learn how to generate more value with less resource loss. <\/p>\n\n
Waste from textile industries<\/h2>\n\n
Waste from textile industries has many origins. It does not only come from used clothing. It also appears in the design, cutting, tailoring, textile production, distribution, sales, returns, and end-of-life stages of the product. <\/p>\n\n
Within the types of waste in the textile industry, we can find different categories.<\/p>\n\n
On one hand, there is pre-consumer waste. This is waste generated before the product reaches the final customer. It includes fabric scraps, tailoring offcuts, samples, defective products, production surpluses, discarded textile materials, as well as other auxiliary retail elements such as packaging, labels, hangers, and supports. <\/p>\n\n
On the other hand, there are post-consumer wastes. These are the garments, footwear, accessories, and other textile products that consumers discard after use. Part of that clothing can be reused, repaired, donated, resold, or turned into recycled clothing. Another part, especially when there is no proper sorting or when materials are difficult to separate, ends up in a landfill, incineration, or low-value circuits. <\/p>\n\n
There is also solid waste derived from production, such as fiber scraps, yarns, fabrics, textile dust, sludge from industrial processes, or packaging materials. In some cases, the industry can generate hazardous waste, especially when chemical treatments, dyes, finishes, auxiliary substances, or processes requiring specific management to avoid environmental contamination are involved. <\/p>\n\n
The problem is not just the quantity. It is the complexity. <\/p>\n\n
Many garments combine natural and synthetic fibers. Others incorporate buttons, zippers, adhesives, coatings, prints, or components that are difficult to separate. This mixture complicates textile recycling and limits the possibility of recovering materials with sufficient quality for new uses. <\/p>\n\n
Therefore, the solution cannot only come at the end of the process. It must start much earlier, in the design, in the choice of materials, in production planning, in traceability, in logistics, and in the management of each product when its first use ends. <\/p>\n\n
Environmental impact of textile waste: key figures<\/h2>\n\n
The scale of the problem is global. It is estimated that the fashion industry generates around 92 million tons of textile waste every year. A figure that shows to what extent the current model needs to be rethought. <\/p>\n\n
The environmental impact of textile waste occurs at several levels.<\/p>\n\n
First, through resource consumption. Textile production requires raw materials, water, energy, chemicals, transport, and industrial processes. When a garment is used little or quickly ends up as waste, part of that productive effort is lost. <\/p>\n\n
Second, through waste accumulation. Clothing and other textile materials that reach landfills can take years to degrade, especially when they contain synthetic fibers. In this process, materials that could have been reused, repaired, recycled, or recirculated are wasted. <\/p>\n\n
Third, through environmental pollution associated with certain textile processes. Dyes, treatments, material blends, microfibers, and poorly managed industrial waste can impact the soil, water, and ecosystems. <\/p>\n\n
Fourth, through the loss of economic value. Every poorly managed textile waste represents material, energy, time, and productive capacity that leave the system without generating value again. <\/p>\n\n
The circular economy proposes exactly the opposite: keeping textile products, components, and materials in use for longer; reducing waste generation; designing better from the source; and creating systems capable of recovering value where the linear model only saw an end. <\/p>\n\n
What is textile EPR?<\/h2>\n\n
Textile EPR, or Extended Producer Responsibility applied to the fashion sector, is one of the most relevant regulatory changes for the industry.<\/p>\n\n
Its principle is clear. The producer should not limit their responsibility to the moment they place a product on the market. They must also assume responsibility for what happens when that product becomes waste. <\/p>\n\n
In practice, textile EPR seeks to ensure that companies introducing textile and footwear products to the market contribute to organizing and financing systems for the collection, sorting, reuse, recycling, and treatment of waste. In other words, it forces a look at the entire cycle and not just the commercial phase. <\/p>\n\n
This approach connects directly with the circular economy. If a company must be responsible for the end-of-life of its products, it will have more incentives to design them better from the start. More durable products. Easier-to-separate materials. Less complexity. Greater recyclability. Better traceability. More possibilities for reuse. <\/p>\n\n
Within this framework, SCRAPs appear: Collective Extended Producer Responsibility Systems. A SCRAP allows different companies to group together to collectively fulfill their waste management obligations. These systems organize or facilitate the collection, sorting, treatment, recycling, and recovery of products once their useful life has ended. <\/p>\n\n
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