Many Europeans who donate old clothes assume they will be given to those in need. However, these garments could easily end up in an illegal landfill in a foreign country. While second-hand clothing typically ends up in poorer countries, especially in Africa, sometimes it also finds its way to Europe—Romania, for instance. Romanian environmental authorities have stated that the country is becoming a dumping ground for waste labeled as "used clothing." In many cases, these clothes end up being dumped in rivers and fields. The trade of used clothing in Europe is not tightly regulated, and laws vary from country to country, making it difficult to enforce standards. Often, weak legislation and lax oversight create channels for large amounts of textile waste to cross borders, ultimately polluting the environment.
The European second-hand clothing industry, as well as clothing donation initiatives, presents itself as an eco-friendly solution in the era of fast fashion, where cheap clothes are produced, bought, and discarded at an increasingly rapid pace. In wealthier European countries, clothing donation bins along the streets are often adorned with slogans promoting environmental sustainability. But the reality is not always as green as it seems. Frequently, clothes collected in donation bins are sold locally, while lower-quality items—such as dirty, torn, or otherwise unusable garments—are exported to poorer countries. Referred to as "waste colonialism," this transfer of textile waste from wealthy nations—Europe exports over a third of the world's used clothes—to poorer countries, often under the guise of philanthropy, has been well-documented in nations like Ghana, Kenya, and Chile, which import large volumes of used clothing from Europe. However, there is less known about the flow of textile products within the European Union, such as to Romania. An investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and its Romanian partner, RISE, sheds light on how well-intentioned trade practices can negatively impact the environment instead of providing a sustainable alternative, even within European borders.
In Romania, the region most affected is the Jiu Valley. Here, unusable clothes are dumped in fields, and locals use them as fuel to heat their homes. The practice is so common that the local population has developed a system for categorizing the most desirable fabrics for use in stoves: blue jeans, the highest-quality material, burn slowly and provide good heat, while shoes, the least desirable, emit terrible fumes and offer little heat. According to the United Nations' Comtrade database, an average of 58,000 tons of used clothing were imported into Romania annually between 2020 and 2023. The main supplier during this period was Germany, one of the world's largest exporters of used clothing, accounting for about 50% of Romania's imports over the past four years. There is, of course, a strong economic incentive to send such shipments to poorer countries, including those within the EU like Romania. The cost of disposal in wealthier countries is higher than in poorer nations, and much of the process is often carried out illegally.
A contributing factor to this phenomenon, as observed in Romania, is the lack of a clear definition of "textile waste" under EU law. There are no common criteria to determine what measures should be taken to classify a piece of used clothing as reusable rather than waste. A 2023 proposal at the European level would introduce new regulations, such as sorting requirements, to ensure that what is shipped as used textiles is indeed suitable for reuse. However, nothing has been done yet. As a result, countries like Romania see textile waste being dumped in illegal landfills or abandoned in riverbeds, contributing to practices that pose a serious threat to both the environment and public health.
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