ASOS, the global fashion destination, has signed a legally-binding agreement with global trade union federation, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), to protect transport workers’ rights and enhance the safety, resilience and sustainability of its supply chains.

The partnership builds on ASOS’ long-standing leadership in embedding human rights across its business and supply chains, extending this commitment into transport and logistics.

Under a legally-binding human rights due diligence (HRDD) agreement, ASOS and the ITF will cooperate in conducting HRDD in ASOS’ transport operations and logistics, ensuring respect for human rights and sustainability throughout ASOS’ supply chains. ITF will support ASOS in its HRDD policy design, the identification, avoidance and mitigation of risk, and the determination of remedies if rights are violated.

ASOS has signed a legally-binding human rights due diligence (HRDD) agreement with the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) to protect transport workers and strengthen supply chain sustainability.
The pact includes monitoring, remediation, gender equality, and climate action, extending ASOS’ human rights focus into logistics while setting new benchmarks for GNFR supply chain standards.

ASOS and ITF will also engage with ASOS’ brand partners to share resources and educational tools on HRDD relating to transport and logistics.

ITF General Secretary, Stephen Cotton, said: “ASOS has been leading the charge from businesses that demand better protection for people and planet through human rights due diligence. So, we’re delighted to team up with ASOS in order to raise the bar globally for the transport workers who keep our world moving.

“Agreements like this are helping the ITF to shift the dial on the protection of transport workers’ rights. But we can only do this in tandem with pioneering, progressive businesses like ASOS, who are ready to push far beyond the minimum of what’s legally required of them.”

ASOS and the ITF will also work together on climate change and gender equality – key issues affecting transport and logistics workers in both directly operated and subcontracted transport operations in ASOS’ global supply chain.

ASOS Chief Executive Officer, José Antonio Ramos Calamonte, said: “Enhancing the human rights of everyone involved in our value chain – from designing and making clothes, to warehousing, shipping and delivery – has been a core mission for ASOS for close to a decade. Our new agreement with ITF will enable us to take our work even further and extend our action to protecting and improving the human rights of workers in our transport and logistics supply chain, reducing risk and improving supply chain resilience while delivering positive change for the people supporting our business.”

Under the agreement, the following key elements will form the basis of the conduct of HRDD in ASOS’ transport operations and logistics:

• Meeting or exceeding the policies and practises outlined in the ITF Supply Chain Human Rights Principles and the ITF’s Eight Principles for Decent Work in Warehousing, Distribution and Logistics
• A monitoring and compliance mechanism based on worker-centred HRDD approaches, including the ITF’s HRDD Guidance
• Providing for or cooperating in remediation for rights violations, including when appropriate through collective bargaining with the ITF and/or its affiliated trade union members
• Creating an enabling environment for mature industrial relations in ASOS’ own operations and supply chains; where possible, granting the ITF and its affiliates access to transport and logistics suppliers and workplaces within ASOS’ supply chains

In addition, ASOS will consider the ITF as a ‘stakeholder’ for any relevant legislation, as regards the human rights of transport and logistics workers in ASOS’ directly operated and subcontracted supply chain transport operations. ASOS also commits, where possible, to join the ITF in its national and international advocacy for high standards in transport supply chains.

“There’s no doubt that ASOS is leading the way in ensuring rights are protected in the ‘goods not for resale’ (GNFR) part of its supply chain,” added Cotton. “Many businesses are far too slow at prioritising GNFR and what it can mean for protecting millions of workers worldwide from rights abuses. But when a retailer like ASOS takes a lead on this, it sends a clear message for other business to step up to the plate.”

Note: The headline, insights, and image of this press release may have been refined by the Fibre2Fashion staff; the rest of the content remains unchanged.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RM)

The backbone of Europe’s textile waste management system, its collection and sorting infrastructure, is under critical strain, according to a recent report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

Several major players are halting operations or going bankrupt, triggering a breakdown in the system, the report, titled ‘Textile Waste at a Tipping Point: Unlocking Europe’s Circular Potential’, said.

In France, social enterprise Le Relais stopped all textile collection in mid-2025 and began unloading unsorted waste outside major retailers to protest underfunding. Without emergency support, it warned it would not survive beyond year-end.

Europe’s collection of textile waste and sorting infrastructure is under critical strain, according to a Boston Consulting Group report.
Several major players are halting operations or going bankrupt, triggering a breakdown in the system, it noted.
The main reason is a funding gap: eco-organisations and public authorities are not paying enough per tonne collected to cover operational costs.

Smaller collectors are also closing quietly. In Germany, two major collectors, SOEX and Texaid, have filed for insolvency respectively in October 2024 and June 2025 due to collapsing export markets and rising sorting costs.

In the United Kingdom, closures and layoffs have hit textile recyclers, which include Textile Recycling International, which entered administration in early 2024. The Textile Recycling Association has warned of a ‘sector-wide collapse’ as processing capacity disappears and resale prices plummet.

At the heart of this collapse is a funding gap: eco-organisations and public authorities are not paying enough per tonne collected to cover operational costs. Meanwhile, saturated second-hand markets, fast-fashion waste and stricter export conditions are all compounding the pressure.

Without urgent intervention, Europe’s textile circularity ambitions risk unravelling, the report cautions.

In Europe, only around 1 per cent of textile waste is recycled into new textiles. The rest is either reused through second-hand markets, downcycled into lower-value applications like rags or insulation, processed into solid recovered fuel (SRF) or sent to landfill or incineration.

Landfilling is expected to decline sharply by 2035—from 26 per cent of total textile waste in 2024 to 17 per cent in 2035—driven by regulatory and environmental pressure. The EU Landfill Directive mandates that municipal waste landfilling fall below 10 per cent by 2035, prompting many countries to implement landfill taxes and bans on specific products.

Reuse is the most sustainable option and has been enabled by charity networks, resale platforms, and exports. Yet the ecosystem is under pressure and the second-hand textile market in Europe is stalling slightly, driven by the rise of ultra-fast fashion and the saturation of traditional export channels, the report notes.

As resale prices fall and collection costs rise, operators are left with declining margins and increasing volumes of low-quality, unsellable garments. Incineration is still carbon-intensive and risks undermining climate objectives unless paired with mitigation measures, it adds.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

Luca de Meo seems intent on reshuffling the deck at Kering. At the French luxury group’s annual general meeting in September, the new Italian boss, who joins from Renault, took a straight line to express his vision. The new roadmap will be announced in early 2026, but he and his team will be making adjustments before the end of the year, he explained.

An understatement. Luca de Meo is due to officially take up his post this Monday at the Paris headquarters of the parent company of Gucci, Saint-Laurent, Bottega Veneta, McQueen, Boucheron and Balenciaga, and has already begun the big maneuvers.

According to WWD and Miss Tweed, Francesca Bellettini, the former CEO of Saint-Laurent, who has been Kering’s Deputy CEO in charge of house development since September 2023, will be in charge of the group’s core business. In this role, all the group’s general managers now report to her. Within the management committee, which was headed by François-Henri Pinault (who remains chairman of the Board as of September 15), Jean-Marc Duplaix was the other deputy managing director, in charge of operations.

This appointment to Gucci’s general management, if confirmed, would imply the departure of Stefano Cantino. Recruited from Louis Vuitton in May 2024 as deputy CEO of Kering’s flagship fashion house, which was then headed by Jean-François Palus, Cantino took over as CEO of Gucci on January 1. If these changes are confirmed, the Italian will have held the reins of the Roman house for only nine months.

For Bellettini, this potential move would be a major challenge, as de Meo has made no secret of the urgent need to turn around the group’s flagship, which accounts for some 40% of global sales in the first half of 2025, as much as a return to its roots. Having been with the group for over twenty years, the Italian executive initially joined Gucci in 2003, where she was director of strategic planning and associate director of merchandising, before transferring to Bottega Veneta and then helping Saint-Laurent grow, first at the end of the Slimane era and then with Anthony Vaccarello.

Media reports announcing this change of challenge for the director suggest that these moves could be made official at the beginning of the week.