Out of solidarity or simply to empty out closets, the French have been champions when it comes to donating clothes for forty years now. France is a good student at European and global levels in terms of the recovery of textile waste but has seen its sector threatened by Asia since the summer, a phenomenon whose first symptoms are the closure of collection points managed by associations.
On the national territory, more than 47,000 containers and relay terminals make it possible to collect 34% of textile waste, indicates 20 Minutes Refashion, the eco-organization tasked by the government with supporting the fashion industry towards a more circular economy.
But “in certain territories, those involved in the collection of TLC (textiles, household linen and shoes, editor’s note) have stopped all or part of their collections and removed voluntary drop-off points,” warns Le Relais. The leader of these points is still able to manage the influx despite a 15% increase in donations since April thanks to these 33 sorting centers throughout France. An increase linked in particular to overconsumption in recent years. But this is not the case for certain associations which were quickly buried under clothing.
A transformed global thrift store market
In recent months, in fact, certain associations have been forced to condemn or remove these containers, as explained by TF1. “This is the case of Habit29 in Brittany or Trio Emmaüs in New Aquitaine,” explains Refashion. Closures linked to sorting centers saturated with tons of clothes that are difficult to get out behind. The cause? “A significant slowdown in the global second-hand clothing market” since June 2024, analyzes Le Relais, which provides 50% of French collection thanks in particular to its relay terminals.
Each year, around 270,000 tonnes of textile waste are collected in France and “60% of sorted products” are resold as second-hand goods – including 90% abroad, according to the 2023 Refashion report. This exported second-hand clothing market allows players in the social and solidarity economy to partially finance themselves.
Good ecological news?
But now, “African buyers are turning away to buy second-hand clothes or even new items in China”, which costs these wholesalers much less than buying second-hand European goods, explains Sandra Baldini of Refashion. In Europe, “this model based on thrift shopping is drying up”, a “sudden reversal of the market”, believes the expert. But that could be good news from an environmental point of view.
Because these piles of textile waste exported in particular to Africa represent an ecological and social disaster: a substantial part of this waste, ultimately not sold in second-hand stores on the African market, ends up in informal open-air landfills or in waterways.
But Refashion insists: “It is not because there are difficulties that we should stop” bringing our clothes to collection points, the worst solution being to throw them away. Indeed, she recalls, “100% of the textiles thrown away (in simple bins, Editor's note) are incinerated while only 0.5% of what is collected (in terminals, Editor's note) is incinerated. »
