Textile recycling statistics reveal a large gap between the amount of textile material entering waste systems and the amount recovered for recycling or reuse. In the United States, textile municipal solid waste generation reached 17,030 thousand U.S. tons in 2018, while 2,510 thousand U.S. tons were recycled. In the European Union, household textile-waste capture was just under 15% in 2022. UK figures likewise show substantial flows into residual waste alongside large collection and export streams.
Contents
- U.S. textile waste generation
- U.S. recycling, landfilling, and energy recovery
- EU textile waste and separate collection
- EU reuse, consumption, and exports
- EU circularity indicators
- UK textile disposal and recovery
U.S. textile waste generation
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) tracks textiles as a material category within municipal solid waste (MSW). This series covers U.S. municipal solid waste only, excludes reused textiles from the generation estimate, and its latest textile-management observation is 2018.
U.S. textile MSW generation increased from 1,760 thousand U.S. tons in 1960 to 2,040 thousand U.S. tons in 1970 and 2,530 thousand U.S. tons in 1980. The total then reached 5,810 thousand U.S. tons in 1990 and 9,480 thousand U.S. tons in 2000. The EPA recorded 11,510 thousand U.S. tons in 2005 and 13,220 thousand U.S. tons in 2010.
The later observations were 16,060 thousand U.S. tons in 2015, 16,890 thousand U.S. tons in 2017, and 17,030 thousand U.S. tons in 2018. The 2018 total represented 5.8% of total U.S. MSW generation. These are generation estimates for the specified years, not measurements of all textiles produced or consumed in the country. Source: EPA, “Textiles: Material-Specific Data”.
| Year | U.S. textile MSW generated (thousand U.S. tons) |
|---|---|
| 1960 | 1,760 |
| 1980 | 2,530 |
| 2000 | 9,480 |
| 2010 | 13,220 |
| 2015 | 16,060 |
| 2018 | 17,030 |
The time series shows that textile waste generation was reported at a much higher level in 2018 than in the earlier observations. Because the EPA series is specifically an MSW series and excludes reused textiles, it should not be read as a complete estimate of the environmental footprint of the entire textile sector.
U.S. recycling, landfilling, and energy recovery
The EPA recorded 50 thousand U.S. tons of textile MSW recycled in 1960, followed by 60 thousand U.S. tons in 1970 and 160 thousand U.S. tons in 1980. Recycling reached 660 thousand U.S. tons in 1990, 1,320 thousand U.S. tons in 2000, and 1,830 thousand U.S. tons in 2005. The figures were 2,050 thousand U.S. tons in 2010, 2,460 thousand U.S. tons in 2015, and 2,570 thousand U.S. tons in 2017.
In 2018, the United States recycled 2,510 thousand U.S. tons of textile MSW. The EPA reported a 14.7% textile recycling rate for that year. The small difference between the 2017 and 2018 tonnages does not change the broader point that recycling remained a minority outcome compared with total textile MSW generation. Source: EPA, “Textiles: Material-Specific Data”.
Landfill totals were 1,710 thousand U.S. tons in 1960, 6,280 thousand U.S. tons in 2000, 8,900 thousand U.S. tons in 2010, and 10,540 thousand U.S. tons in 2015. In 2018, 11,300 thousand U.S. tons of U.S. textile MSW went to landfills, equal to 7.7% of all MSW landfilled according to the EPA.
Some textile MSW was combusted with energy recovery. The reported total was 10 thousand U.S. tons in 1970, 880 thousand U.S. tons in 1990, 1,880 thousand U.S. tons in 2000, and 2,270 thousand U.S. tons in 2010. In 2018, the total reached 3,220 thousand U.S. tons, equal to 9.3% of MSW combusted with energy recovery. Energy recovery is a separate management outcome from material recycling and should not be counted as textile recycling.
EU textile waste and separate collection
The European Environment Agency (EEA) estimated that EU Member States generated about 6.94 million tonnes of textile waste in 2022. That was about 16 kilograms per person. The figures describe EU-wide waste generation for 2022 and are not directly interchangeable with the EPA’s U.S. MSW series.
The EU household textile-waste capture rate was just under 15% in 2022. In other words, about 85% of EU household textile waste was not collected separately in that year. The EEA reported that the capture rate increased by 4.3 percentage points between 2016 and 2022, but the 2022 level still indicates that most household textile waste was outside separate collection.
The destination mix also changed over time. The share of European textile waste sent to landfill fell from 21% in 2010 to 12% in 2022. Over the same period, the share sent to incineration rose from 10% to 14%. These percentages describe the cited European textile-waste treatment shares and should not be interpreted as a recycling rate.
Additional EEA data for 2020 put EU separate collection at 4.4 kilograms of textile waste per person, while mixed household waste contained 11.6 kilograms of textile waste per person. Post-consumer waste represented 82% of EU textile waste in 2020. Source: EEA, “Circularity of the EU textiles value chain in numbers”.
EU reuse, consumption, and exports
EU textile reuse totaled 451,268 tonnes in 2021, excluding Bulgaria and Cyprus and including Norway. The EEA reported average textile reuse of 1.7 kilograms per person in the EU in 2021. Because national methods vary, the EEA cautions that reuse figures are not suitable for direct cross-country comparisons.
For context, EU consumers consumed an average of 15.9 kilograms of new textiles per person in 2021. A related EEA indicator reported clothing, footwear, and household-textile consumption at 19 kilograms per person in 2022. These figures use different measures and years, so they should be read as separate indicators rather than combined into one calculation. Sources: EEA, “Textile reuse per person per year” and EEA, “Textiles | Circularity Metrics Lab”.
The EEA reported that the EU exported more than 1.44 million tonnes of used textiles in 2025, equal to 3.2 kilograms per person. In an earlier 2019 distribution, Africa received 46% of EU used-textile exports and Asia received 41%.
Used-textile export figures are trade-flow statistics. The EEA notes that the relevant export codes do not cleanly distinguish high-quality used clothing from textile waste. Therefore, exported tonnage is not confirmed recycling tonnage, and it should not be presented as proof that all exported textiles were reused or recycled. Source: EEA, “EU Export of used textiles”.
EU circularity indicators
The EEA’s circularity indicators provide additional measures of recycled content and end-of-life treatment. In the latest EEA indicator observation supplied for this topic, 13% of the most popular clothing items bought online contained at least 20% recycled content. The observation is labeled as the latest indicator observation without an assigned year.
The same indicator set reported that 26% of separately collected textile waste was sent to incineration or landfill in the EU27. This is a treatment figure for separately collected material, not a claim that 26% of all EU textile waste was recycled or disposed of in that way.
These indicators also show why “collected,” “reused,” “recycled,” and “containing recycled content” should be kept separate. Collection measures entry into a collection system; reuse measures continued use; recycled content describes the material in a product; and incineration or landfill describes a treatment route. Source: EEA, “Textiles | Circularity Metrics Lab”.
UK textile disposal and recovery
UK and England statistics use different geographic scopes, so each figure needs to be read with its stated coverage. In England, more than 1 million tonnes of textiles were estimated to enter household and commercial municipal residual waste in 2017. Within that estimate, almost 400,000 tonnes were clothing and almost 430,000 tonnes were non-clothing textiles. Textiles accounted for 4.2% of municipal waste arising in England in 2017.
The UK separately collected 620,000 tonnes of used textiles for reuse and recycling in 2018. About 60% of the UK’s separately collected used textiles were exported in the cited WRAP data. This export share is associated with the latest cited WRAP data in the government source and is not assigned a new year here. Source: UK Government, “The waste prevention programme for England: Maximising Resources, Minimising Waste”.
WRAP reported that the UK consumed 1.42 million tonnes of new textile products in 2022. Around 276,000 tonnes of UK textiles were sold to the public in 2022, while around 650,000 tonnes were diverted to reuse and recycling from end-of-life disposal. Around 421,600 tonnes of UK textiles were exported in 2022.
| UK indicator | Amount | Scope and period |
|---|---|---|
| Textiles entering residual waste | More than 1 million tonnes | England, 2017 |
| Separately collected for reuse and recycling | 620,000 tonnes | UK, 2018 |
| New textile products consumed | 1.42 million tonnes | UK, 2022 |
| Diverted to reuse and recycling | Around 650,000 tonnes | UK, 2022 |
| Textiles exported | Around 421,600 tonnes | UK, 2022 |
The 2017 England residual-waste estimate and the 2022 UK consumption and diversion figures are not a single continuous time series. They cover different years, geographies, and measurement concepts. Source: WRAP, “Textiles Market Situation Report 2024”.
Together, the U.S., EU, and UK figures point to several distinct measurement questions: how much textile waste is generated, how much is separately collected, how much is reused, how much is materially recycled, and where the remaining material is treated. Keeping those categories and time periods explicit is essential when comparing textile recycling statistics.