Textiles: buyers’ market depresses trade values

Conflict in Ukraine, the biggest importer of used clothing in eastern Europe, overshadows day-to-day business.

Markets for used clothing and textiles have continued to remain at depressed values and have not picked up at all. Anyone who believes that municipalities, waste management companies or charities can expect to see increased prices for used textiles any time soon will be disappointed.

It is very easy for some collection businesses to try to tempt suppliers by offering what seems to be market-busting values but things can unravel very quickly and when this happens it is the suppliers that are left out of pocket.
Some of these tempting offers will come from businesses will do not even have the most basic legal requirements or essential minimum standards in place.

Where possible, suppliers should use textile collection businesses that are members of national trade associations for the textile recycling industry in which they operate or international trade bodies such as the Bureau of International Recycling or EuRIC.

Supplies of used clothing/textiles continue to be able to meet current demands and, with it being a buyers’ market, wholesalers are understandably putting downward pressure on the prices they pay for goods before they import the clothing and textile items into their own countries. Values are also being depressed by the continued growth in fast fashion and decline in quality.

In some collections, such as those from recycling centres run by municipalities or waste management companies, more than 60% of items collected now go for recycling rather than reuse.  

By the time a collection or sorting business has taken into account all of its processing costs, the total bill for handling recycling grades will run into the hundreds of Euros per tonne. This is how much they are actually losing. It is only because of the returns from reusable clothing that any profits can be generated.

Ukraine

We cannot ignore what is happening in Ukraine. It is the biggest importer of used clothing/textiles in Eastern Europe and that includes Russia. In 2019 over 123 000 tonnes was imported into Ukraine, according to UN Commtrade data.
This vital market will no doubt be interrupted by the conflict and this can only result in a bigger glut in international trade. But our primary thoughts are very much concentrating on the welfare and safety of people who are being adversely affected by the conflict as it unfolds.

Environmental impact

On 10 February, the European Environment Agency (EEA) published a briefing entitled: ‘Textiles and the environment: The role of design in Europe’s circular economy’ which provided updated estimates of the life-cycle impacts of textiles on the environment and climate. Its aim, according to the EEA, is to contribute to the implementation of the EU Strategy for Textiles and the EU Sustainable Product Initiative through an improved understanding of the environmental impacts from textiles and identify design principles and measures to increase circularity in textiles.

It notes that in 2019, the EU textile and clothing sector had a turnover of EUR 162 billion, employing more than 1.5 million people across 160 000 companies. As was the case in many sectors, the Covid-19 crisis between 2019 and 2020 decreased turnover by 9% for textiles as a whole and by 17% for clothing. In 2020, textile consumption in Europe had the third highest impact on water and land use and the fifth highest in terms of raw material use and greenhouse gas emissions.