Faced with the massive accumulation of discarded clothing each year in France, the eco-organization Refashion is now calling on consumers to deposit all their used textiles in collection bins, even the most damaged items. An awareness campaign was launched on Tuesday to try to divert millions of tons of clothing destined for incineration or landfill from the trash.
Commissioned by the government to organize the textile industry, Refashion states its aim is to better utilize this waste, either through industrial recycling or by transforming it into fuel for certain facilities. The organization estimates that approximately 10 kilograms of textiles per capita still end up in regular household waste each year.
Those involved in reuse denounce a saturated system
On the ground, several organizations like Emmaüs are raising the alarm about a situation that has become difficult to manage. They denounce the explosion in the volume of clothing collected, but also the decline in the quality of the recovered garments, which increasingly come from fast fashion and are often impossible to resell.
The charities also explain that secondhand platforms are now capturing clothes in good condition, depriving charitable networks of the products that ensured their economic viability. Last year, the Le Relais network made headlines by dumping tons of clothing in front of several stores to denounce the saturation of the sector.
Refashion, for its part, assures that its system for taking back unusable textiles is now fully operational after the tensions encountered in 2025. But several associations fear that the industry will gradually favour incineration as fuel rather than reuse, which is considered an environmental priority.
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