Cercle National du Recyclage | France’s textile recycling sector in crisis

According to the latest statement from the Cercle National du Recyclage (CNR), the textile recycling sector in France continues to face a deepening crisis, primarily due to the poor quality of fast fashion-dominated clothing collected and the lack of viable outlets or extremely low resale prices. CNR regrets that despite this, Refashion (the eco-organisation responsible for the sector) continues to promote textile collection, while operators struggle to manage collection and sorting. Exceptional financial support has been provided, but operators report it is insufficient, and a lack of consensus with Refashion has left collection systems overwhelmed. Thus, CNR notes as a result that local associations are forced to send unusable textiles to residual waste streams and request financial support from local authorities. 

Municipalities now bear the burden of handling abandoned textiles and those discarded in household waste, a situation CNR describe as unsustainable. CNR warns that local governments should not be left to compensate for the failures of producers and the eco-organization, especially when reserves exist, and sector-wide savings are made by not meeting collection targets. The association calls for urgent additional funding and for the government to enforce producer responsibility. 

Source: www.cercle-recyclage.asso.fr (in French)