Europe is a world leader in recycling, but currently only a fraction of its post-consumer textile waste is reused or valorized in some form; the rest piles up in landfills, is incinerated or moves through low-value export routes that obscure where the material ends up and who pays. In 2025, just 1.5 million tons out of 13.3 million tons of post-consumer textile waste were collected and sorted.
Textile waste has grown rapidly alongside the rise of fast fashion brands. Each European consumer buys about 95 pieces of textiles annually, up 12 percent since 2019. The average EU citizen discarded 25 kg of textiles in 2025 — a volume that, without a functioning system, becomes a recurring household and municipal cost rather than a recoverable material stream. Cheap and low-quality fashion is seen as disposable, which has created a major waste issue, and producers are not incentivized to change their ways.
With recent innovations in textile-to-textile recycling, synthetic textile waste has the potential to become the feedstock for a genuinely circular European textile value chain. Capturing and reusing that material would not only preserve natural resources and reduce waste, but also support rebuilding the EU’s industrial base and economic sovereignty. If this is to happen, Europe needs to use the forthcoming Circular Economy Act to recognize textiles as a critical resource and establish a coherent framework across the bloc that supports collection, sorting, reuse and high-quality recycling at scale.
A new season for Europe’s fashion industry
Turning fashion from a linear industry into a circular one is an ongoing, complicated process. For the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a circular economy for fashion is where clothing, shoes and accessories are used more, made to be recycled and created from recycled or renewable inputs.
European post-consumer textile waste is currently more likely to be downcycled, landfilled or incinerated rather than recycled in Europe due to a lack of financial incentive and a clear regulatory pathway — meaning the EU is discarding material it could use, while exporting environmental impacts and industrial value elsewhere. Right now, it is more affordable for producers to use virgin materials rather than recycled ones, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
The demand for secondhand is clearly not growing as fast as the waste, and the waste being received is of lower quality. The centers have to handle more without being able to extract the value, so they’re being overwhelmed.”
Patrik Frisk, CEO of Reju
In the Netherlands, the government recently awarded Reju a €135 million grant to build and operate its first industrial-scale textile Regeneration Hub in Chemelot. Reju is a textile-to-textile regeneration company focused on turning European post-consumer polyester textile waste into new high-quality recycled polyester. Once the Chemelot Regeneration Hub is up and running, the company expects to process approximately 64,000 tons of textile waste, representing 300 million items, to produce close to 40,000 tons of recycled polyester material annually.
Textile sorting is still usually done by hand in sorting centers run by non-profits. “The demand for secondhand is clearly not growing as fast as the waste, and the waste being received is of lower quality. The centers have to handle more without being able to extract the value, so they’re being overwhelmed,” says Patrik Frisk, CEO of Reju. “As the business matures over the years, and regulations come into force to help build the upstream system that is required to scale up, only then will we have a self-sufficient economy. The regulation framework has to be coordinated and without this the entire Extended Producer Responsibility infrastructure will not attract outside capital.”
Supporting locally made, circular textiles will not only help the EU pursue the Sustainable Development Goals but will also support regional manufacturing during a difficult economic time. The clock is ticking: Each EU member country must establish its textile EPR scheme by April 16, 2028, and the forthcoming Circular Economy Act is expected by the end of the year.
We have to build infrastructure. We have to change the ways we do things.”
Patrik Frisk, CEO of Reju
The act offers a critical opportunity to embed textiles into Europe’s broader circularity framework and give investors the confidence to build the infrastructure needed for textile-to-textile recycling. EPR schemes are an essential aspect of the circular economy, as they make producers financially responsible for the collection, sorting, reuse and recycling of textiles once they are discarded.
“We have to build infrastructure. We have to change the ways we do things,” Frisk says. “It’s going to take two to three years to build a very large regeneration hub. It’s going to take one to two years to build large sorting facilities. But is it all worth it? Yes, it is.”
How Europe can boost textile-to-textile recycling
Turning the vision of European textile-to-textile recycling into reality will require collaboration, harmonization and investment. The Circular Economy Act should be used to make that circular opportunity real by giving textiles the place it deserves in Europe’s industrial policy. Here’s what it will take:
- Treat textile waste as a strategic resource: In its virgin form, polyester is made of fossil fuels. Europe should be treating post-consumer textile waste as an important feedstock for the circular textile industry — in essence, a critical raw material for European industry. Establishing regional textile recycling hubs would be a first step in making this happen.
- Harmonize EPR schemes: Having 27 different national schemes risks further delaying investment and weakening the economics of textile recycling. Harmonized rules on producer scope, fee calculation, eco-modulation and reporting will help producers be compliant across Europe and reduce the administrative burdens.
- Set clear recycled-content targets: Requiring mandatory recycled-fiber content requirements for new textiles placed on the EU market will help create demand. Specific minimum targets should be set and revisited regularly to reflect EU textile recycling capacity.
- Monitor compliance at the brand level: Companies would be required to meet minimum targets for recycled fibers across all the textiles they sell on the EU market, rather than in each individual product. This should be supported by product-level data and tracking systems in line with the upcoming Ecodesign Sustainable Product Regulation delegated act for textiles and Digital Product Passport requirements.
- Reward circular design: Eco-modulated EPR fees should incentivize products that are durable, repairable, reusable, recycled and made with recycled content. Consistent fees across member countries would reward brands for designing products that can be recycled at end of life.
To build a strong circular textile economy, and take advantage of its untapped potential, the EU needs to make textiles a central part of its circularity agenda — not an afterthought. Otherwise, Europe will continue to pay for a broken system while importing the materials needed to replace it.
Harmonized standards, better data, incentives for circular design, and funding for both operations and investment in reuse and recycling infrastructure can turn today’s waste challenge into a European industrial opportunity. Reju is ready to work with policymakers, Producer Responsibility Organizations, brands, sorters, recyclers and other stakeholders to help build an EPR system that strengthens Europe’s industrial base and strategic independence.
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