Where do the clothes go after we put them in a recycling bin? An 11-month investigation covering thousands of kilometers | Climate

On the seashores of Accra, the ocean vomits up outdated garments. The sand in Akuma Village is roofed with a carpet of footwear and plastics entangled with shirts, shoelaces and pants. It’s simply the tip of the iceberg of what’s presently floating within the ocean. Just a few miles away on stable floor rises a sequence of multi-colored hills. That is no idyllic panorama, however slightly, gigantic mountains of used clothes that has come from Europe, China and america. Some are on hearth, emitting black poisonous smoke from the combustion of artificial fibers. It leaves the air thick, sour-smelling.

Ghana is an excessive case, but it surely’s not the one instance of how international locations all through the World South similar to Pakistan, Kenya and Morocco play a elementary function within the system of hyper-production of cheap clothes. These are the locations that make it potential for us to purchase shirts we don’t want and clothes we’ll put on as soon as, or by no means. They’re the textile landfills that maintain “quick style,” which in international locations like Ghana has led to an environmental and public well being catastrophe. In Africa, it’s often called “useless white man’s garments” and a few nations like Uganda, Rwanda and Zimbabwe have prohibited or restricted the importation of what they name “textile neocolonialism.”

To find out how we bought right here and precisely what occurs when, with all the great intentions on the earth, we deposit a garment in a secondhand clothes donation bin, EL PAÍS launched into practically a yr of investigation that has allowed us to corroborate the ultimate vacation spot of 15 clothes whose path we adopted, due to geolocation know-how. The outcomes have been revealing. The bulk proceed circulating or are in warehouses or empty tons. Half have traveled to international international locations, leaving a monumental carbon footprint of their wake, contaminating the World South and feeding into opaque business networks. That’s to say, clothes doesn’t at all times find yourself within the place we think about after we do away with it and even when it does, the ecological footprint of its journey is immense.

The basis downside, in keeping with specialists, is the unbridled production of cheap clothing. They are saying that, regardless of the present system’s failings, depositing clothes in donation containers continues to be essentially the most sustainable choice. In Spain, exports of used clothes have skyrocketed in recent times because of the nation’s incapacity to soak up the variety of clothes which are purchased and discarded.

15 hidden AirTags on clothes which have traveled the world

Final March, we requested EL PAÍS workers to carry garments they not wore to our headquarters in Madrid. We sewed AirTags into every of the 15 clothes, hiding them in folds and pockets in order that they weren’t seen at first look. These units allowed us to geolocate the pants, shirts and jackets due to a sign they emitted each time they bought near a cellphone. There was only one downside: the machine would beep when this occurred, revealing its presence. A technician from Greenpeace made our job simpler by eradicating their capability to beep and similar to that, the AirTags grew to become our silent allies.

We despatched the clothes all through Spain with the assistance of the newspaper’s numerous native places of work, every of which deposited an merchandise in a secondhand clothes donation bin. Along with this geographic stability, we tried to be sure that a wide range of distribution networks have been represented: containers operated by department shops, NGOs, native councils. The garments instantly started to broadcast indicators, and from then on, we might see the place they have been at any given second.

Eleven months later, lots of the clothes have been nonetheless on the street and 7 of them had traveled overseas to Africa and Asia. Three of them handed via or stayed at distribution factors within the United Arab Emirates. One pair of Minnie Mouse pajama pants made in China, which have been deposited in April right into a container in Zamora, Spain, handed via Madrid after which flew to the Emirates, the place it reported from a warehouse owned by The Fabric, a textile and clothes recycling firm that claims to course of 1,200 tons of clothes each month.

A black bullfighter-style jacket made in Morocco and discarded at a Madrid H&M container traveled via the Netherlands earlier than ending up within the UK in a manufacturing facility that shreds clothes to show it into different materials. Beige trousers made in China have been present in a procuring space in South Africa, as a contributor to this newspaper was in a position to confirm, after first passing via Italy, Abu Dhabi, India and Mozambique. Gentle blue ripped denims made in Turkey have been tossed right into a container in San Sebastián and months later, appeared within the Emirates and from there, have been despatched to Ghana. They then traveled to Ivory Coast, the place they have been discovered on the outskirts of the capital. Others are nonetheless in industrial models in Spain or in empty tons, like a black coat whose AirTag locations it in an industrial property in Montaverner, Valencia, in an open-air fenced enclosure the place bales of garments sit, as reported by EL PAÍS journalist Andrés Herrero Gutiérrez. A pair of boy’s pants have been deposited in an A Coruña container and emitted their final sign on February 4 in an industrial property in Ferrol, Spain.

This experiment represents a minuscule sampling, however serves as a very good illustration for the best way tons of clothes transfer world wide. A number of of the clothes are nonetheless touring, however to date, the seven which have left Spain have gone greater than 65,000 km (40,400 miles) since they have been dropped off. And that’s not counting the greater than 36,200 km (22,500 miles) that had already been traveled by the seven clothes between their manufacturing websites and Madrid, the place they have been taken to the EL PAÍS headquarters.

These are the clothes EL PAÍS tracked:

These outcomes are consistent with these from a European Union study that discovered that, no matter whether or not clothes are donated to a non-profit, they usually enter right into a business market. The worth for a pound of secondhand garments is round 36 cents. In Asia, garments are bundled in industrial areas, the place they’re re-exported to different Asian or African international locations. 40% of exports to Africa find yourself in landfills, in keeping with the identical sources. Moreover, 89% of those clothes include artificial fibers, which can decompose into microplastics with poisonous chemical compounds that contaminate the soil, water and air, resulting in severe public well being points.

“As reuse and recycling capacities in Europe are restricted, a big share of used textiles collected within the EU is traded and exported to Africa and Asia, and their destiny is very unsure,” states a document from the European Setting Company, which argues that “the widespread public notion of used clothes donations as beneficiant presents to folks in want doesn’t totally match actuality.”

The information is obvious. We purchase extra garments, at decrease costs, and we use them for a shorter period of time. The European Union alone generated 6.94 million tons of discarded textiles in 2022 — round 16 kg (35.3 kilos) per individual. Of that, 15% was left in recycling facilities and the remainder ended up combined in with home waste, in keeping with information offered by the European Setting Company and the European Heart for Round Economic system and Assets that can be printed in March.

The quantity of used textiles that’s exported from the EU tripled over the last 20 years, going from 550,000 tons in 2000 to 1.4 million tons in 2019. The quantity that was collected and despatched to different international locations is predicted to extend significantly because of the requirement to gather textile waste individually within the EU, in keeping with the EEA. This new directive, which got here into drive in January 2025 and which in Spain is regulated via the nation’s Regulation on Waste and Contaminated Soils, requires city councils and firms to put in extra containers for the selective assortment of used textiles as a way to encourage reuse and recycling.

Spain is the eighth EU nation when it comes to textile waste technology. International commerce information exhibits that final yr, used clothes exports amounted to 164,274,577 kg (362,163,449 kilos), in keeping with information that was launched this week. This represents a pointy enhance from 129,705,188 kg (285,950,992 kilos) in 2019. The United Arab Emirates (a hub from which garments are exported again to Africa, as we have been in a position to confirm with a few of our trackers in the middle of this investigation), Morocco and Pakistan are the first locations of those clothes.

Albert Alberich is the director of Moda re-, a social cooperative promoted by the Catholic Church’s group Caritás that has dealt with three of the clothes that EL PAÍS deposited in donation containers. He estimates that between 700,000 and 800,000 tons of textile waste find yourself in landfills. “It’s an outrage. The problem it represents for our society is brutal, as a result of we’ve got to cut back consumption and select higher-quality clothes,” says the chief, who provides his group doesn’t have the capability to eliminate all the clothes they obtain, which forces them to export.

The United Nations Setting Program calculates that between 2% and eight% of polluting emissions come from the textile sector and that projections point out that this determine is about to skyrocket in coming a long time. The textile business additionally consumes 215 trillion liters of water a yr, the equal of 86 million Olympic swimming swimming pools, and generates 9% of the microplastics that pollute the ocean.

This environmental affect will increase dramatically if we take into consideration the clothes which are destroyed in Europe earlier than being worn, one other perverse impact of the present quick style system. Figures point out that between 4% and 9% of all clothes offered in Europe are destroyed earlier than being worn, which implies that between 264,000 and 594,000 tons of textiles are destroyed yearly. This phenomenon has quite a bit to do with the return of clothes bought on-line. In Europe, customers return about 20% of the garments purchased on-line, 3 times greater than these purchased in a bodily store. A couple of third of returned garments find yourself being destroyed.

Moreover, specialists warn that garments are reducing in high quality, changing into more and more much less recyclable and sturdy. “On the one hand, there’s the rise within the quantity of clothes that has been produced within the final 20 years, which multiplies the quantity of waste that’s generated,” says Sara del Río, a Greenpeace researcher. Information reveals that, for instance, manufacturing of textile fibers reached an all-time excessive final yr. “However, however, there’s additionally the problem of high quality, which is getting worse and has clear penalties for the setting,” says Del Río. Her group estimates that half of the clothes that arrive in Ghana, for instance, are of poor high quality, don’t have any chance of being offered once more, and are manufactured from artificial fibers.

Del Río welcomes the brand new legislation that requires the separation of textile waste, however fears that such options solely have an effect on “the top of the pipeline.” “If we give attention to waste, however don’t assault a manufacturing system that generates an increasing number of polluting items, the issue is not going to be solved,” she says.

Ghana, the good used clothes dump

Chilies, ginger, scouring pads, plastic flip-flops, shoelaces and tons of used clothes. The humidity and warmth contained in the bustling Kantamanto market is suffocating. It’s a labyrinth of slim alleys full of individuals, with piles of products in every single place. The clattering of tons of of 1000’s of treadle stitching machines serves as background music on the market, the place tons of used garments from industrialized international locations arrive each week. The motion of bales of garments which are pressed and stacked in vans is steady. They arrive from Korea, america, Canada, the UK. The fabric is displayed in precarious and colourful stalls. A 3-quarter coat, in defiance of the unrelenting warmth. A down jacket alongside a mountain of army clothes. An deserted railway line traverses the market from finish to finish. On its tracks, lately washed denims dry within the solar.

The homeowners of those stalls purchase bales by weight, with out figuring out what’s inside them and with no ensures. “It’s like a lottery. You don’t have the suitable to return it and also you don’t know what the standard goes to be till you open it,” says 43-year outdated Vida Oppong. Final night time, the vehicles arrived loaded with huge bales of used garments and at this time, Friday, Oppong is opening them one after the other. She buys from wholesalers, who in flip purchase from intermediaries who receive the products from NGOs and different organizations. Oppong inherited her enterprise from her mom. She advertises the garments that arrive in WhatsApp teams and on social networks.

A brand new 55 kg (121 lb) bale arrives, which value her 20 cedis ($1.31). It’s heavy, as a result of the clothes has been pressed. She cuts the black straps that bind it and opens the large package deal, which has come from the UK. She is going to later use the straps to make baskets — right here, nothing is thrown away. She finds a black Primark jacket, then one other from Subsequent and a 3rd from Zara. Then comes one which was initially white and now has a yellowish tinge. One other, with a pen nonetheless in its pocket. Oppong has a choice for darkish denim as a result of lighter shades should be typically taken to the drycleaner’s earlier than they’re offered. If it’s not in good situation, she’ll rip it in order that it’s “extra punk.” Typically, she’ll simply use the material to make denim baggage. Different merchants agree together with her evaluation that within the final 5 years, the standard of the garments arriving has declined significantly.

“Earlier than, while you went to the market, you might even discover Chanel. These days, the North retains one of the best and sends us the trash. It’s pure textile colonialism”

—

Kwamena Boison, co-founder of Revival

Kantamanto is taken into account the prime mannequin of a round market wherein 1000’s of entrepreneurs work to offer second life to what folks in different international locations have discarded. The issue is that the big efforts of Kantamanto’s merchants are clearly inadequate. Rather more arrives than will be reused and, along with the used garments, tons of very low cost new clothes are obtained, a manufacturing surplus with which it’s unimaginable to compete. What isn’t processed finally ends up being incinerated in gigantic landfills. Their capability to recycle was additional diminished on January 1, when the market burned down and 1000’s of individuals have been left with no livelihood. They’re now making an attempt to rebuild.

Kwamena Booison, co-founder of Revival, a Ghanaian group that’s devoted to clothes recycling, talks about how “quick style is destroying the native textile business. Secondhand garments are so low cost,” he laments. He believes that the standard of the garments coming into the market must be regulated. “Earlier than, while you went to the market, you might even discover Chanel. These days, the North retains one of the best and sends us the trash. It’s pure textile colonialism,” he says. His group works hand in hand with Kantamanto entrepreneurs to attempt to intercept garments that might in any other case wind up within the ocean. His group estimates that between 10% and 40% of what arrives is unusable, though the secondhand clothes commerce affiliation says the determine is decrease. Boison is obvious that we face a worldwide downside. “Societies should get entangled to discover a actual resolution. There must be a world plan for the North and South.”

Branson Skinner, co-founder of Or Foundation, which fights in opposition to textile waste, defends the work of the Kantamanto entrepreneurs at his headquarters in central Accra. “They aren’t the issue. We now have to assault the foundation trigger, which is the enterprise mannequin.” He thinks that “if Europe was severe about recycling, it could assist these folks. They do the soiled work.” His group estimates that earlier than the fireplace at Kantamanto, 25 billion clothes have been recycled each month. At this time, representatives from a number of European cities have come to the places of work of the Or Basis to see what they’ll do to make sure that the businesses working in their very own cities fulfill their duty to deal with the waste they generate. Liz Ricketts, the director of the inspiration, thinks that the one manner ahead is to increase producer duty and to make corporations’ manufacturing figures extra clear. “In 2011, after we began, there was no textile waste on the seashore. It’s all occurred in a short time,” says Ricketts.

Ricketts’ basis, which is financed by quick style chain Shein, has constructed a used clothes recycling heart in Kantamanto that experiments with fibers within the manufacturing of clothes hangers, photograph frames, cushions and even audio system. They choose up clothes from the seashore and divide it by colour, shredding it and mixing it with cassava starch. They use this materials to make between 100 and 150 merchandise a day, a course of that generates job alternatives. The issue is that it represents a mere drop within the ocean.

Tons of clothes that aren’t processed in Kantamanto wind up on the seashore or burned in landfills. Infrared evaluation carried out by Greenpeace in Ghana has discovered that no less than half of those clothes are constituted of non-biodegradable plastics that find yourself as polluting microplastics. Within the case of the Accra landfill websites, a part of the power launched by the burning of the mountains of clothes is used to warmth water in public baths. No less than three of the baths have registered the presence of poisonous substances, together with carcinogenic parts.

The enterprise of crossing from Melilla to Morocco

The Mediterranean waters that lap the shores of Nador don’t wash up undesirable clothes. On this Moroccan metropolis, situated lower than 20 km (12.5 miles) from Spain’s exclave city of Melilla, the enterprise generated by European used and discarded clothes appears to be like totally different to that of Ghana. Its earlier iteration, wherein massive quantities of clothes have been carried over the border from Melilla into Morocco, dried up in 2018, when Morocco unilaterally closed the business border between Beni Ansar and Melilla. However the business’s new kind enriches a number of and exploits many, condemning 1000’s of people that as soon as lived off this exercise to a fraudulent and much more precarious commerce, to not point out, the battle for mere subsistence.

“15,000 folks used to make a residing working between Melilla and Morocco,” amongst them 1000’s of Moroccan porteadoras [women who carry heavy bales of clothing and other items on their backs as they cross the border], says Omar Naji, a member and former coordinator of the Moroccan Affiliation of Human Rights (AMDH) in Nador. With hardly any options in the case of jobs in a area that “had at all times lived off smuggling,” the closure of the border plunged Nador right into a deep disaster. Its newest inhabitants census confirms, in keeping with Naji, that the province is dropping inhabitants. “Individuals are emigrating as a result of the socioeconomic state of affairs is so dangerous,” provides the activist.

The journey made by a pink material coat that EL PAÍS deposited in a donation field in Guadalajara managed by East West, an organization that presents itself as a promoter of environmental care, neatly illustrates the story of former smugglers who’ve been pushed again into the casual economic system as a way to survive. After touring some 1,600 kilometers by land and sea and passing via Murcia, Cádiz, Algeciras, Tangier, Rabat and Meknes, the garment arrived in mid-September in Nador, particularly in one of many warehouses in a casual market of former smugglers.

From then on, its AirTag has continued to emit a sign that signifies that it hasn’t moved. Faruq retains tabs on who comes and goes from this solitary constructing, constructed with cash contributed by the smugglers themselves “on land they hire from the state.” Solely the clanking of the metallic gates of the encircling warehouses breaks the prevailing silence. The noise is an indication {that a} service provider is loading or unloading bales of garments. Like Faruq’s brother, who locations on a motorized cart an unlimited sack from which a maroon shoe stands proud.

They’re not fully comfy that journalists are there to witness them. However Faruq, whom everybody treats because the warehouse boss, is not going to name the police, not like others in Nador who’re apt to take action on the mere signal of a video digicam. He can’t. “The police maintain us very oppressed,” acknowledges the person, who labored for greater than 20 years smuggling garments between Nador and Melilla and who prefers to make use of a pretend title and conceal his face from the digicam’s lens. “The businesses we purchase from don’t bill us,” he says to justify why he avoids the police, whereas opening the door to one of many storage rooms filled with “75-kilo” (165 lb) bales of garments.

Faruq and his folks’s lifestyle has developed from smuggling to a different type of casual enterprise wherein their solely choice is to irregularly purchase clothes that they may later resell. They can’t legally import secondhand garments with no license. The Moroccan authorities has solely granted them to a handful of corporations, as Naji confirms, and the previous smugglers, who’ve organized right into a type of union led by Faruq, have been making an attempt for years to acquire one in every of these permits. They will hardly purchase used garments legally from licensed Moroccan corporations, as a result of the permits solely enable these corporations to promote round 20% — although the proportion can fluctuate — of their product on nationwide territory. The measure is designed in order to not hurt the Moroccan textile business, explains Naji. So the one choice, says Faruq, is to purchase with out an bill. Each events win: the previous smugglers will profit from cheaper merchandise and the importers will discover a marketplace for their product in Morocco, the place secondhand clothes markets are in every single place.

Within the Yutiya market, one in every of many situated within the area, Faruq has numerous factors of sale. Among the many piles of garments in these souks, one can discover something from a 100% cotton jumper in excellent situation for 10 dirhams (about $1.05) to marriage ceremony clothes and Dr. Marten boots for 50 dirhams (lower than $5.25). The whole lot — or simply about — is more likely to be resold: pajamas, jackets, belts and even mountains of bras and underwear. At a stall promoting backpacks hangs one which was apparently as soon as utilized by a little bit boy named Hugo, in keeping with the title written in black marker on one in every of its pockets. In one other stall hangs a uniform from the multinational logistics firm DHL, and a T-shirt from a Spanish plaster solid firm. There may be a lot clothes that one vendor spreads a grey gown out like a carpet to forestall patrons from monitoring mud into his stall on a wet afternoon.

Costs fluctuate by high quality and the state of the garment. Faruq breaks down the classes: the “cream” garments, from the French expression la crème de la crème, “are top-level” and are purchased by merchants at round 150 dirhams ($15.30) per kilogram, with the items later offered for 400 dirhams ($41) apiece. “They’re costly manufacturers,” he says. From there, the clothes is split into teams “one”, “two” and “three”, with costs starting from 70 to fifteen dirhams per kilogram.

Fatima is accompanying her nieces to the Aroui market, situated alongside Nador airport, all the best way from Oujda, which is 93 miles away. “I discover good high quality secondhand garments,” she says. On this present day, after 4 hours of looking out, she’s acquired a pair of Timberland boots that “value 1,200 dirhams new, for simply 150,” she says with evident pleasure.

However the murkiness surrounding the secondhand clothes enterprise in Nador goes past the sale of untaxed items. Months after the border was closed, Karama Recyclage (its title comes from the Arabic phrase for “generosity”) was constructed on a plot of land dealing with the port of Beni Ansar. Karama is a used garments administration firm financed largely with public cash to supply an outlet for many who might not smuggle items. “The bid [for the license to import secondhand clothes] required the applicant to make use of between 800 and 1,500 folks affected by the closure, largely ladies porters,” explains Naji. However the actuality of the state of affairs contrasts with these preliminary expectations. The corporate is the one one within the Nador province that holds a license for the importation of used clothes, a reality the activist denounces due to the “monopoly it represents.” Moreover, “half of those that work there have by no means been concerned in smuggling,” says Naji, who says that the porteadoras, who’re largely ladies over the age of fifty, have been left behind with few choices for survival.

Those that have discovered work at Karama usually are not a lot better off. “Not all of them are paid the minimal wage or are registered with the social safety system. They’ve issues with extra time, they don’t seem to be allowed to go to the toilet, and are topic to verbal abuse,” says Naji, referring to testimonies that his affiliation has collected from Karama staff. 4 ladies, in keeping with the activist, reported sexual abuse and abusive physique searches by safety guards to the AMDH in Nador, however didn’t see that the corporate made any modifications. “It additionally employs the technique of not paying staff for 2 or three months and even firing them to make them protest, and thus, have the ability to put strain on the Public Administration and the Ministry of Business and Commerce to resume their license,” which should be re-issued each six months.

One former Karama employee, Saleh (not his actual title), corroborates these stories. “There may be a number of exploitation, they frisk you in an abusive manner after which they accuse you of getting stolen garments, even once they’re your individual clothes.” After 4 years, he left his job after changing into injured by a forming press and failing to obtain any compensation. EL PAÍS has tried to acquire a remark from Karama Recyclage on these claims by phone, e mail and even by knocking on the corporate’s door, however didn’t obtain any response.

Faruq doesn’t purchase items from Karama. “What we have been shopping for earlier than for 30 dirhams, they attempt to promote to us at 120,” says the person, who prefers to do enterprise with corporations in Tangier, via which the pink material coat tracked by this publication handed. Faruq appears to be like once more on the bales.

— Do you come throughout torn clothes typically?

— In fact, and in very dangerous high quality.

— And what do you do with them? Do you recycle them?

— We now have to throw them within the trash.

Separated by legislation

Since January 1, 2025, the gathering of used textiles has been obligatory in EU international locations as a way to scale back waste and encourage recycling. One of many goals is for textile producers to be accountable for your entire life cycle of their merchandise, from their design to how clothes are discarded. In Spain, this regulation is a part of the Waste and Contaminate Soils Act, which requires that by 2025, it should be potential to reuse or recycle no less than 55% of family waste, together with textiles. That share will enhance to 60% in 2030 and 65% in 2035. For sensible functions, native governments and clothes manufacturers should set up extra containers to gather textile waste individually, along with these already managed by non-profits. On the similar time, outlets won’t be able to throw away unsold surpluses, which should be despatched “firstly to reuse channels.”

Some corporations have been amassing used garments for years. In 2015, Inditex launched a program that positioned containers in all its shops to facilitate the recycling of clothes. “The clothes are collected by the non-profits with which we collaborate, though our predominant accomplice is Cáritas, which manages the clothes via Moda re-,” firm representatives clarify. A sweatshirt that EL PAÍS deposited via this program in a Zara retailer within the Isla Azul procuring heart in Madrid arrived final Could at a Moda re- warehouse within the Atalayuela industrial property within the capital. It has been there ever since, though two different geolocated clothes have been deposited on the similar retailer traveled so far as the United Arab Emirates. “One of many situations of our settlement with Moda re- is that our clothes can not find yourself in a landfill or in a sure variety of international locations the place satisfactory remedy can’t be assured,” say the identical representatives, who wouldn’t verify which international locations have been on the banned listing.

H&M additionally has an analogous clothes assortment program that includes containers in its shops. “Clothes that may be reused is offered secondhand. This represents roughly 60%. Clothes and textiles that can not be resold are reused or mechanically recycled into new merchandise and fibers, for instance, in merchandise for industries similar to automotive, building or cleansing rags,” firm representatives clarify. One of many 15 clothes, a black bullfighter-style jacket, ended up in the UK at Edward Clay Wooden, the headquarters of a felt producer in Osset.

Moda re-, the cooperative in whose amenities three of our geolocated clothes wound up, operates 4 used clothes remedy crops in Bilbao, Barcelona, Valencia and Madrid. “In 2024, we collected greater than 45 million kilos (99 million lb) of garments,” says Alberich. The manager clarifies that, in keeping with the newest research which were made out there to him, establishments like his accumulate a complete of “between 105 and 110 million kilos (231 and 243 million lb)” yearly. “However that’s nonetheless little or no when you take into consideration the estimates which were made that between 700,000 and 800,000 tons of textile waste results in landfills,” he stated.

“We don’t have the capability to kind all the garments that arrive to Moda re-, though that’s our objective,” says the director of the group. Actually, the amount of clothes they obtain is such that they’ve moved from a 64,600-square-foot facility to a 25,900-square-foot area in Barcelona. Regardless of this, they’re nonetheless unable to seek out an outlet for a lot of of clothes. Those who they can not course of and classify are “largely exported to the United Arab Emirates, as a result of the nation has turn into a hub for processing used clothes.” Of the three EL PAÍS clothes that have been processed by Moda re-, one in every of them continues to be saved in a Madrid warehouse, whereas the opposite two have been transferred to the Emirates. Certainly one of them traveled to Johannesburg.

In keeping with Alberich, between 50% and 55% of the garments that Moda re- processes is reusable and between 30% and 40% is recycled and was different merchandise, as a result of it’s not “appropriate for being reused.” However of the reusable garments, solely 10% wind up in one of many group’s retail areas all through Spain, a rustic that, in keeping with him, “doesn’t have a lot of a practice of carrying used garments,” as they’re nonetheless related to a “sure stigma.”

Once more, he turns to information to match international locations. “In Spain, there’s not more than 300 secondhand clothes shops, together with these operated by Moda re-, Humana and different non-profits,” whereas in the UK, “non-profits alone handle 11,000 institutions.” “In Spain, garments might be reused way more than they’re,” he says. Clothes labeled as reusable that isn’t offered in Spain is exported to Africa. “It is rather troublesome to forestall the clothes from ending up in Africa whereas the waste hierarchy [of the European Union] stays unchanged, which implies that we can not recycle a garment that’s reusable,” explains Alberich. Though, the “huge secret,” he says with conviction, is within the “first ‘R’, that of lowering consumption.”

In Could 2024, new European regulation on waste shipment, together with textiles, got here into drive. It goals to remove the affect of waste shipments to growing international locations, promote the traceability of waste shipments throughout the EU and facilitate their recycling and reuse.

This month, the European Union reached a provisional settlement to revise the waste framework directive by extending the duty of producers, who should pay a charge to finance the sorting of clothes and the processing of textile waste. Member States can be accountable for deciding on concrete measures to fight ultra-fast style.

Non-profits have welcomed these new norms, however worry they are going to be meaningless if the power to handle waste recycling doesn’t enhance. If it doesn’t, a good portion of this waste might nonetheless be despatched to international locations outdoors the EU. And nonetheless, the underlying downside, as identified by Greenpeace researcher Del Rió, is that the mannequin of overproduction of clothes stays unquestioned.

Regardless of this, non-profits insist that customers mustn’t cease donating their used garments, and that the containers presently offered for that objective proceed to be essentially the most sustainable various. “Recycling and reuse work and a number of progress has been made. We community with style corporations and with public administrations. We don’t have all of the solutions, however what we are able to’t do is decelerate. We’re all part of the issue and part of the answer,” says Nati Yesares, head of the environmental division on the non-profit Solidança, which collects 7,700 tons of garments yearly that it then sells in its secondhand shops and exports to shoppers, nearly all of that are Africans. “They’re merchandise, not waste,” says Yesares, whose group has created greater than 300 positions, 180 of them for deprived teams. She says that one of the crucial pressing duties is to seek out methods to raised recycle textile methods, “in a round method and in Europe.”

The concept the international locations of the World South can be able to recycling supplies that Europe exports on account of its incapacity to course of them sustainably is unrealistic. The low high quality of the clothes that arrives in these international locations usually prevents its reuse. However whereas new legal guidelines are handed and the manufacturing system considers correcting its excesses, on the outskirts of Accra, foul-smelling fires proceed to burn via mountains of clothes, for ever and ever. The clothes tracked by EL PAÍS proceed to disclose gaps in an more and more unsustainable system. We’ll proceed to report on their whereabouts.

Translated by Caitlin Donohue.

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