BRUSSELS - Most textile waste in Europe currently ends up in mixed waste while sorting and recycling capacity need to be urgently scaled up to ensure better and more circular use of used textiles, new research suggests.
The European Environment Agency (EEA) says in its latest briefing, ‘Management of used and waste textiles in Europe’s circular economy’, that while around 16kg of textile waste per person was generated in the European Union in 2020, only about one quarter of this amount (4.4 kg) was collected separately for reuse and recycling, with the rest ending up in mixed household waste.
