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Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.

Can Fashion’s Multi-Million-Tonne Trash Problem Be Controlled?

Regulators are trying to crackdown on the pollution caused by throwaway fashion. But ensuring old clothes aren’t treated as trash is trickier than it seems.
Clothes bagged up at a textile recycling and sorting facility in Belgium.
Clothes bagged up at a textile recycling and sorting facility in Belgium. (Eric Lalmand/Belga Mag/AFP via Getty Images)

Every year, consumers around the world discard millions of tonnes of worn T-shirts, jeans and dresses — and the

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Further Reading

Should Fashion Pay for Its ‘Waste Colonialism’?

Every year, millions of tons of old clothes are shipped around the world as part of the global secondhand clothing trade. Nonprofit The Or Foundation and Vestiaire Collective are lobbying for regulation that benefits the countries where they end up.

About the author
Sarah Kent
Sarah Kent

Sarah Kent is Chief Sustainability Correspondent at The Business of Fashion. She is based in London and drives BoF's coverage of critical environmental and labour issues.

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