Europe’s textile waste management system under critical strain: 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)