Consumption of textiles has, on average, the fourth highest impact on the environment and climate change in the European Union, after food, housing and mobility. It is also the third highest area of consumption for water and land use, and fifth highest for the use of primary raw materials and greenhouse gas emissions.

Textile consumption in the European Union increased from 17 kg per person in 2019 to 19 kg per person on average in 2022 — enough to fill a large suitcase with new textiles. At the same time, around 12 kg of clothing per person is dumped each year in the EU – equivalent to 5 million tonnes.

Textiles are one of the biggest sources of PFAS pollution in Europe. Polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS), a group of highly persistent chemicals, are widely used in many textile-based products including clothing, carpets and other household goods for waterproofing, oil, dirt and heat protection, and increased durability. Reducing the use of PFAS – known as forever chemicals – in clothing, furniture and other textile products, is important to increase recyclability and the transition to a more circular economy.

It takes a lot of water to produce textile, plus land to grow cotton and other fibres.

To make a single cotton t-shirt, 2,700 litres of fresh water are required according to estimates, enough to meet one person’s drinking needs for 2.5 years.
In 2022, textile consumption per person in the EU required on average:

• 323 square metres of land
• 12 cubic metres of water
• 523 kg of raw materials

According to the European Environment Agency (2024), between 4% and 9% of all textile products put on the European market are destroyed without ever being used. Used clothes can be exported outside the EU but are mostly (87%) incinerated or landfilled.

The way people get rid of unwanted clothes has also changed, with items being thrown away rather than donated. Less than half of used garments are collected for reuse or recycling, and only 1% of used clothes are recycled into new clothes, since technologies that would enable clothes to be recycled into virgin fibres are only now starting to emerge.

Why is prevention key to reducing the environmental impact of textile waste?

Prevention is key to reducing textile waste because it is the most effective way to mitigate the problem. A vast number of textiles (carrying a massive environmental burden) are created every year, but many of these are never fully used.
Researchers from Belgium and the Netherlands found that 22% to 50% of the clothes in a typical European wardrobe are “dormant” – meaning they have not been touched or worn a single time in the last 12 months. Of these dormant items, 75% are still in good enough condition for reuse, but study participants were unwilling to part with almost 60% of these items, mainly due to future-use intentions – the notion that they will wear those clothes eventually. Likewise in Britain, according to WRAP, people have 118 items of clothing in their wardrobes on average, but 31 have not been worn in the past year. That’s a quarter of wardrobes sitting unworn.

Not only have they cost money to buy, but at some point, these clothes will become waste. That means that avoiding the purchase of this dormant quarter of our wardrobes in the first place would save money and prevent waste – at no detriment to the wearer.

The problems of textile waste are also exacerbated by online shopping. Since e-shoppers cannot try on the items before they buy online, some tend to purchase the same product in different sizes to try on at home. This often results in them returning or, in some cases, even throwing away the products that do not fit. Lenient return policies have led to an increase in returns, of which 22% to 44% never reach a new customer and are instead destroyed.

Circular design is an important enabler of the transition towards sustainable production and consumption of textiles through circular business models. The design phase plays a critical role in each of the four pathways to achieving a circular textile sector: longevity and durability; optimised resource use; collection and reuse; and recycling and material use.

Why is textile waste a relevant stream to move towards a circular economy?

According to the European Environment Agency, the textiles sector is the third largest employer worldwide, after food and housing. In 2020, almost 13 million workers were employed in the global supply chain to fulfil the European Union’s demand for clothing, textiles and footwear alone.

Textiles are also an important economic sector for the EU’s domestic economy. In 2019, this sector had a turnover of EUR 162 billion, employing over 1.5 million people across 160,000 companies. Around 6.9 million tonnes of finished textile products are produced in the EU-27 every year. Production specialises in carpets, household textiles and other textiles (including non-woven textiles, technical and industrial textiles, ropes and fabrics). In addition to finished products, the EU produces intermediate products.

Becoming more circular is crucial to reducing the environmental and climate change impacts of the textiles industry. Implementing and scaling up circular business models requires technical, social and business model innovation; as well as enablers from policy, consumption and education.

How can textiles become more circular?

There are four main pathways to realising a circular economy for textiles. But they all start with design, which is the cornerstone that can ensure higher quality of materials, longer lifetimes, better use of materials, and stronger options for reuse, repair, and recycling. Better design is a life-extending strategy that avoids inefficient waste management decisions and enables higher waste hierarchy strategies to take place.

The first pathway from circular design is to ensure the longevity and durability of textile products. Fast-changing fashion trends and a decrease in product quality have reduced the life span of clothes by 36% in two decades, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Careful selection of materials is important because one of the biggest drivers of textile waste by consumers is dissatisfaction with a product’s functionality, such as rips or holes, worn-out appearances, loss of shape, stains or colour fading. Design can also make or break possibilities for repair, with well-designed items enabling at-home or simple repairs.

The second pathway from circular design is to optimise resource use. For companies, this can mean reducing the material, water, and energy used to create a product, or changing the input of materials to allow more recycled fibres. Some companies offer clothing subscription services, in which customers pay a fee to rent a specific number of garments. This allows them to change their wardrobe frequently, without acquiring new clothes.

The third pathway concerns the collection and reuse of textiles. Since January 2025, EU countries are required to collect textiles separately for re-use and recycling. In September 2025, the European Parliament approved new rules under which EU countries should set up Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes that would make sure producers of clothing, accessories, hats, footwear, blankets, linens, curtains (and optionally mattresses), cover the costs for collecting, sorting, and recycling their products. These EPR schemes should also cover products sold online or by producers registered outside the EU. These legislative changes encourage new business models to emerge and make the economic case for circular textiles. For examples, some brands and retailers have introduced take-back services and pre-loved collections, while online platforms for buying and selling clothes are increasingly popular.

While the previous pathways focused on “slowing down the loop”, the last pathway “closes the loop”: recycling and material reuse. This means turning waste textiles into raw material for new textiles or other production chains. Material can be reused at the fabric level through remanufacturing, often referred to as “upcycling”, or at the fibre level through recycling. Both reduce the need for virgin raw materials and textile waste generation.