The export market for sorted used clothing — which funds Northern collection — is closing

The problem

Textile collection economics in the Global North have long depended on an export valve: after sorting, the reusable fraction (the "fripe") is baled and sold abroad, with historically around half of sorted EU volumes going to non-EU markets, especially in West and East Africa. That export revenue makes domestic collection financially viable — it pays for labour-intensive sorting and for disposing of the unsellable remainder.

The valve is closing on two sides at once:

• Demand-side substitution. Importing countries increasingly buy cheap new garments directly from Asian manufacturers, undercutting secondhand bales and depressing willingness to pay for Northern used clothing.
• Policy and reputational pressure. Several destination countries have moved to restrict or discourage used-clothing imports, citing dumping, local-industry protection, and the proportion of low-quality unsellable waste arriving inside bales. France's éco-organisme has publicly stated that mass export to Africa is no longer economically or environmentally viable.

Why it is load-bearing

This is the single variable the whole upstream service rests on. Collection points, sorting centres, and the social jobs attached to them are all funded downstream of this sale. When the export price per tonne falls — French operators cited revenue down roughly a third year-on-year — every loss compounds back up the chain to the collection container in the supermarket car park.

It also exposes a moral hazard in the old model: Northern "recycling" was partly the offshoring of a disposal problem onto lower-income countries. A fix that simply restores cheap export would rebuild the same dependency. The honest framing is that the domestic chain must become viable without assuming a bottomless export outlet.

Sources: Refashion press materials; FashionUnited and Carenews coverage of the 2025 filière crisis; French National Assembly written question n°9475.