 The used clothing donated to fast fashion brands for recycling doesn't end up back in the clothing these companies produce. The best clothing ends up being resold as second hand clothing. The lower quality clothing ends up being turned into wash rags and home insulation and sold, while the lowest quality clothing that is donated is being illegally burned for heat by residents of Sofia, Bulgaria who live without electricity, water or heating. The burning of clothing containing synthetic fibers and prints has led to major pollution and health problems in Sofia. Hundreds of thousands of tons of fast fashion from brands like H&M, Zara, and Bershka end up in Bulgaria, where clothes are burned as fuel for people who don’t have money for firewood. These burned textiles pollute the air they breathe. Many clothes contain elastomers (what makes clothing stretchy) and plastics that produce harmful fumes when burned. The Issue with “Fast” Fashion Where there used to be 4 collections a year, cheap clothing brands including H&M, Zara and Primark are releasing up to 52 “micro” collections every year. That’s 1 micro-collection a week! We buy way too much fashion From 2000-2020, new clothing purchases have doubled. Over 120 billion new garments are produced worldwide every year. (Reutlingen University). In research done by environmental organization Greenpeace, Germans buy 26kg of clothing per person per year, a party top is worn 1.7 times on average before it’s discarded, and around 40% of clothing is never worn. Recycling clothes at fast fashion outlets Some fast fashion brands have been Since 2013, it's been possible to take discarded clothes to H&M and other fashion brands. H&M accepts 2 bags per customer per day, and gives a 15% discount on a future purchase. In 2016, H&M collected 16,000 tons of second hand clothing worldwide. In 2019, H&M collected 29,000 tons. 70% of newly produced textiles are made with synthetic fibers. They are made from crude oil, and are difficult to recycle. 25% recycled polyester, but not from clothing. Zara representatives was unable to tell the documentary producers.  A recycled clothing bin at an H&M retail outlet Zara's take on recycled clothing Zara’s recycled clothing is made from old recycled bottle waste, and it is very difficult to make clothing again from these cotton-plastic blends. Zara rep ”Materials come from different sources, depending on the raw material and the specific collection. For example, in the H&M Conscious Exclusive Collections, 100% recycled polyester is used.” Zara reps were unable to say what percentage of recycled clothing are in their new textiles.  A tag from Zara's Join Life label How textile recyclers operate
H&M works with I:Collect, a subsidiary of SOEX, Germany’s biggest textile recycler. At I:Collect, the best garments are sold as second hand goods, while the lower quality goods are recycled and sold as insulation material or cleaning rags. These sales streams are what keeps I:Collect in business. A large portion of used clothing is sold to third world countries by sorting companies like I:Collect. An increasing amount of used clothing is ending up in eastern European countries like Poland (67,000 tons), Romania (18,000 tons) and Bulgaria (13,000 tons) (Federal Statistics Office 2020). A lot of discarded fast fashion ends up on the black market in Sofia, Bulgaria Rogue traders from the used clothing industry sell textile remnants to the poor population as fuel for heating for around 30 Euros per ton. Some residents of Sofia, Bulgaria live in homes without electricity, water or heating, so they burn the clothing in their wood stoves for heating. According to Bulgarian law, remnants of clothing that cannot be recycled have to be destroyed in specially equipped incineration plants that are expensive to operate. Some sorting companies, however, choose to sell off these remnants instead of paying the extra cost to burn them in an environmentally responsible manner. The burning of clothing leads to air pollution and health problems Sofia the capital and largest city in Bulgaria, has the highest air pollution of any city in Europe. Pollutants emitted from the illegally burning clothing includes nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide which leads to respiratory issues, increased blood pressure, increased risk of stroke. Final thoughts We hope that after reading this blog post, you have become more informed about the fast fashion industry. You should consider buying higher quality clothing that lasts longer, as well as second hand, thrift or vintage clothing. We also hope you consider washing clothing less and handwashing when possible to reduce water consumption. This is our only planet. Collectively, we can be kind to it. If you want to learn more about fast fashion’s current state of recycling responsibility, check out this documentary from 2021. https://www.dw.com/en/the-fast-fashion-lie-the-empty-promise-of-recycling/av-59541840 What do you think? How has reading this blog post changed how you think about buying or wearing clothing? Leave a comment below...
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