To adapt to “fast fashion”, will we soon pay more for our clothes? – rts.ch

According to figures from the Confederation, the Swiss buy on average 60 items of clothing per year, or more than one per week. A large part of these clothes end up in collection points, even though they are no longer usable. Often, the clothes we get rid of are not used in countries in the South either. In Ghana, almost 40% of imported used textile products end up directly in open dumpsites, creating mountains of trash.

>> On this subject: Our old clothes travel thousands of kilometers to end up in landfills

To deal with this phenomenon, the Swiss textile industry is considering a new path. Seven Swiss companies active in the clothing sector – Calida, Odlo, Mammut, PKZ, Radys, Workfashion and Switcher – launched the Fabric Loop association on Tuesday, whose aim is to encourage the circular economy in the textile industry Swiss. To do this, they intend to introduce an advance recycling tax, intended to finance their subsequent elimination.

No desire to change purchasing behavior

Contributions of this type already exist in Switzerland. For example, every time you buy a drink in a PET bottle, you pay a tax of 1.8 cents. The same is true when purchasing an electronic device, whether it is a cell phone, computer or printer.

The tax on clothing would be a minimal amount, on the order of three to seven cents per t-shirt. It should make it possible to collect textiles which cannot find a buyer on the second-hand market.

It’s not about changing people’s purchasing behavior. If this were the goal, the amounts would have to be much higher, underlines Nina Bachmann of the Swiss Textiles trade association. “The contribution is used to ensure recycling, collection and sorting.” In the future, it should also be possible to reintegrate and recycle materials for which this was not previously possible.

Chemical recycling is expensive

Today, large quantities of textiles cannot be recycled with currently available methods. In traditional mechanical recycling, parts are torn to obtain new fibers. “The problem is that we then obtain very short fibers, which leads to a lower quality of the recycled textile,” explains Tina Tomovic, design researcher at the University of Lucerne.

According to this expert, chemical recycling allows for better results, but this method is only just beginning. The possibilities of use are limited and the energy consumption is still very high. In Sankt Margrethen (SG), the clothing collection company Tell-Tex is planning a new chemical recycling plant, which is expected to be the largest of its type in Switzerland. Clothing that was previously incinerated should therefore be able to be reused.

New rules in the EU from 2026

The problem has been known for a long time, so why is the textile sector only taking action now? “We have long focused on sustainable production, that is, the upstream part of the supply chain,” explains Nina Bachmann. In recent years, the industry has come to the conclusion that the introduction of a recycling tax is necessary.

Researcher Tina Tomovic also believes that this tax is inevitable: “We will not be able to avoid this step.” It is important that used textiles can be reused with the best possible quality, according to her. And for this, we must encourage new technologies and finance the construction of infrastructure, which requires money.

However, until further notice, there should be no state regulation on this subject in Switzerland. In this respect, the European Union is more advanced. In Member States, distributors will have to participate in financing collection and recycling systems from 2026.

Raphaël Günther, SRF

Adaptation in French: Didier Kottelat