site.btaOver 100,000 Tonnes of Textiles Discarded Annually in Bulgaria, Study Shows

Five times the weight of Sofia’s National Palace of Culture, over 100,000 tonnes, is how much textiles people throw away in Bulgaria alone. Only 2% of it is recycled, and between 50% and 70% of the clothes and other textiles collected in Europe are fit for use, the Association for Textile Recycling said on Thursday.

At the moment, the textile collection system in Bulgaria operates entirely on a voluntary basis. There are various associations for separate collection and recovery of textile waste, which cooperate with municipalities. In Bulgaria, there are also companies that offer to pick up unwanted textiles from homes to save people the hassle of searching and going to the bins. This country still relies on the goodwill of citizens and their environmental awareness. But soon it will be mandatory for everyone.

Recovery organisations are an expression of the extended producer responsibility that is being introduced as mandatory for textiles and footwear for EU member states in the revision of the Waste Framework Directive. Bulgaria does not yet have a recovery organisation, unlike many other European countries, the Association said. One is needed because it can contribute to a competitive European recycling industry and support the circular economy.

Currently, mandatory collective textile collection systems as a form of extended producer responsibility exist in France, the Netherlands, and Hungary. There are voluntary so-called recovery organisations in Belgium.

One kg of second-hand clothes saves 5.9 kg of carbon dioxide and 5,448 litres of water.

The textile industry is one of the biggest consumers of water. More wastewater is released from textile production than from all of humanity's domestic needs. About 20% of global water pollution is caused by the dyeing and finishing of textiles with micro plastics. The textile industry uses 45 million tonnes of oil and areas of arable land that can feed 80 million people.

Every year, 5 million tonnes of textiles are thrown away in the EU; people here buy nearly 15 kg of textiles a year and throw away 11 kg. It is no coincidence that they call textiles “the new plastic”. Greenhouse gas emissions from this industry are as high as those from aviation, rail, and shipping combined.