BRUSSELS - A number of key barriers need to be overcome if clothing recycling is to make significant inroads into the vast quantities of post-consumer textile waste generated each year, according to a new report.
The report, entitled Recycled Post-Consumer Textiles - an Industry Perspective, was produced by Interreg North-West Europe (NWE), a European Territorial Cooperation Programme funded by the European Commission's European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
It says that 4.7 million tonnes of post-consumer textile waste is generated annually in North-West Europe, yet less than one per cent of textiles produced are currently recycled into new ones, and around half end up being downcycled, incinerated or landfilled.
