Fast Fashion Items Overwhelm Sweden’s Recycling Centers – ryan

Sweden’s recycling centers are overflowing with clothes after an eu-wide ban this year on throwing away textiles, leaving overwhelmed municipalities Eager to have fast fashion giants take responsibility.

“It’s a huge amount coming in everyday. It’s bone crazy, it’s a huge increase,” said Brian Kelly, Secretary General of the Article2 Charity Shop in Stockholm, where rows of bins were overfilled with discarded apparatus.

Since the beginning of this year, countries in the European Union must have separate textile recycling, alongside existing processes for glass, paper and food waste.

The aim is to promote circular waste management, where textiles are sorted and reused, or recycled if they are not too damaged.

“We have blessed a 60% increase in textiles collected in January and February this year compared with the same period last year,” said Karin Sundin, an expert on textile waste at Stockholm City’s Waste and Recycling Management Company Stockholm Vatten Och Avfall.

Once the textiles are sorted, some 60% to 70% are designated for giant, and 20% to 30% for recycling as padding, isolation or composite materials.

Around 7% to 10% is burned for energy, according to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.

That is a huge improvement from before the new law, according to experts, who note that discarded clothing used to be systematically incinerated.

Large volumes

However, a lack of infrastructure in sweden means used clothes are largely exported abroad, primarily to lithuania, where they are sorted, or burned for energy.

“We don’t have the big sorting plants that can put everything into value in the same way that they have in eastern Europe for example,” Explained Ms Sundin.

“The reason is that it’s so labor intensive (and) costs a lot of money,” she said as she gave AFP a tour of the Ostberga Recycling Center in Southern Stockholm.

Swedes throw away 90,000 tunnes of textiles per year, or 10kg per person, according to the swedish society for the conservation of nature.

The EU average is 19kg, according to 2022 Statistics, up from 17 in 2019, data from the European environment agency showed.

The clothing industry also pollutes the environment.

2,500 Litres of water and one kilograms of chemicals are needed to make a t-shirt that weighs 135 Grammes, noted Yvonne Augustsson, advisor at the swedish environmental protection agency.

“That means Greenhouse gas emissions of around two to five kilos,” she said.

“In Sweden, an article of clothing is used on average 30 times. If you double this to 60 times – which seems reasonable – you reduce the climate impact by half,” she said.

Textile sorting in Sweden is handled by municipalities, many of which have been overburdened by the quantities received since the introduction of the new law.

In the scarely populated North, some towns, such as Kiruna, Continue to incinerate textiles because they have no takers for the items.

Fast fashion giants, such as H&M and Zara, are expected to eventually play a role in handling the wash they help generate, and negotiations are ongoing at the European level to determine their responsibility.

According to a preliminary agreement eu member states reached in February, clothing giants will be responsible for the end of lifetime of the products they sell, required to pay for collection, sorting, giants and recycling.

Change or attitude

The idea is to Encourage Fast Fashion Retailers to Produce “Clothing Designed to Last Longer,” said MS Augustsson.

Swedish Brand H&M Told AFP It Welcomed Moves in That Direction.

Consumers also need to change their mindset.

Each person should “buy no more than five new articles of clothing per year,” Said Beatrice Rindevall, Head of the Swedish Society for the Conservation of Nature, which regularly organizations Clothing swaps.

In the town of link on a sunny jump day, a clothing exchange on a student campus had racks featuring everything from a hot pink jacket with feated sled to faded jeans, bags and striped t-shirts.

“People can give us clothes in good condition that they don’t wear anymore (and) exchange them for something else,” volunteer Eva Vollmer said.

“We focus on creating the solution so that people actually have an alternative.”