Tracking used textiles: where does clothing from Nordic collection bins really go? – Results from 200 trackers

Tracking used textiles has so far relied mainly on trade statistics, which only show where a shipment goes first. Eunomia and Norwegian consultancy Mepex took a different route: they placed digital trackers in 200 discarded garments in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and followed them for six months. The items passed through 23 countries, from Polish sorting hubs to Karachi in Pakistan and Lagos in Nigeria. The picture that emerges is more nuanced than the “dumping ground of the rich world” narrative – but it also shows how quickly the trail goes cold after the first sorting stage.

In short: Tracking used textiles with 200 Nordic garments showed that 71 per cent had their last recorded location in Europe, mostly in Poland and Slovakia, while 34 per cent ended up outside the EU and EEA. More than half of the poorest-condition, Grade D items left Europe, yet their final fate could rarely be confirmed.

Why send 200 garments on a journey?

The fate of used textiles in the Nordic countries is changing fast. Cheap fast fashion is pushing consumption up, while EU rules require more and more separate textile collection – in Hungary too, separate collection of textile waste has been mandatory since 1 January 2025, and MOHU is now offering a free textile collection container to companies, schools and municipalities. More material, and lower-quality material, is entering the system.

Because of high labour costs, the Nordic countries export most collected textiles unsorted, mainly to European neighbours with established sorting industries. The study calls these “Tier 1” countries, such as Poland, Lithuania and Germany. From there, sorted clothing is often traded on to other European or overseas markets – the “Tier 2” countries.

The background figures explain why the question matters. According to the report, the EU generates around 6.95 million tonnes of textile waste a year, of which only 28 per cent is collected for reuse or recycling, and less than one per cent of used clothing is recycled into new garments. Based on European Environment Agency (EEA) data, used-textile exports almost doubled in two decades, from 760,000 tonnes in 2005 to 1.37 million tonnes in 2023. So the question is a practical one: is this genuine circularity, or are we shifting an environmental burden onto other regions?

The report notes that in Denmark and Finland some fine-sorting operations have closed or reduced capacity because of labour costs, while Iceland exports almost everything it collects. Norway and Sweden also depend heavily on export-based sorting.

How was the research carried out?

The study was funded by the Norwegian Retailers’ Environment Fund (Handelens Miljøfond), the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Shape Foundation. Eunomia led the design, trade data analysis and reporting; Mepex led engagement with Nordic stakeholders and coordinated the tagging of garments.

The research rested on three complementary strands:

• Trade data analysis using UN Comtrade to identify the main export routes and destination countries.
• Interviews and country studies in key importing countries: Poland, Lithuania, Germany, Pakistan, India, Togo and Ukraine.
• A six-month track-and-trace exercise in which 200 garments were fitted with digital trackers across the five Nordic countries.

The tagged items came from five product categories (tops, jumpers, skirts and dresses, trousers and shorts, jackets and coats), split roughly 50:50 between good- and poor-condition items. Condition was recorded on a simple four-grade scale:

• Grade A: almost new, minimal signs of wear.
• Grade B: moderate wear but still in good condition, perhaps slight fading or pilling.
• Grade C: noticeable wear, fading or defects; may need repair.
• Grade D: poor condition with significant wear, stains or tears; better suited to upcycling or fibre recycling.

Tracking used textiles: where did the 200 garments end up?

After six months, the last recorded locations broke down by region as follows:

• Europe: 71 per cent (including 4 per cent that returned to the Nordics after sorting);
• Asia-Pacific: 18 per cent;
• Africa: 9 per cent;
• Middle East: 3 per cent.

In EU terms, 66 per cent ended within the EU or EEA and 34 per cent outside it. The researchers themselves caution that the European share is somewhat inflated because not every item had reached a final destination within six months; some were still moving through sorting and wholesale chains.

The concentration at country level is striking. Poland was the largest endpoint with 59 trackers (30 per cent), followed by Slovakia with 35 (18 per cent) and Pakistan with 28 (14 per cent). Poland and Lithuania act as redistribution hubs because their sorting capacity far exceeds domestic needs: the report puts Poland’s capacity at around 200,000 tonnes a year and the combined sorting and preparation-for-reuse capacity of Lithuania’s largest operators at roughly 80,400 tonnes.

This concentration has practical value: better facility-level information from a handful of key countries could substantially improve the Nordic countries’ ability to monitor their own exports.

Three jackets, a knitted top and some detours

Behind the numbers are concrete journeys that show how much more complex reality is than bilateral trade statistics suggest:

• Tag 1, a Grade C men’s jacket from Norway, went to a used-clothing wholesaler in Włocławek, Poland, before reaching an industrial trading estate in Karachi, Pakistan, where the tracker went offline.
• Tag 48, a Grade C knitted top from Denmark, passed through the same Polish wholesaler and turned up at a second-hand clothing market in Lagos, Nigeria.
• Tag 22, a Grade A jacket from Norway, travelled via Poland and Lithuania to Togo – evidence that it is not only low-quality clothing that leaves Europe.
• Tag 8, another Grade A Norwegian jacket, went through Lithuania and Belgium to Benin, crossed into Nigeria and then returned to Benin.

Routes did not always run north to south. One Danish top went from Poland to Bulgaria and then to Norway; a Norwegian jacket returned home from Bulgaria. Other items shuttled between second-hand shops in Poland, and some sat unsold on shelves for months. The researchers draw an important conclusion: a garment reaching a second-hand shop does not confirm that anyone will actually wear it again.

Quality matters – but it is not the whole story

Garment condition showed a measurable link with destination. 56 per cent of Grade D items ended outside Europe, compared with 24 per cent of Grade A, 17 per cent of Grade B and 33 per cent of Grade C. Statistically, only the Grade D difference was significant.

At Asia-Pacific endpoints, Grade D items made up 42 per cent, and several heavily worn, stained or damaged garments were recorded in used-clothing markets or storage areas in Pakistan. Yet the items reaching Africa included seven Grade A garments, showing that these markets also offer genuine reuse opportunities for good-quality clothing.

Country of origin mattered too. Items from Iceland and Sweden were significantly more likely to stay in Europe, while items from Finland were significantly more likely to leave it. The researchers suggest that collection systems, sorting arrangements, exporter relationships and established trade routes all play a part. Sorters’ market knowledge is central here: their job is to match each garment with a place where there is demand for it – work in which AI-driven textile sorting systems can increasingly help.

Where the trail goes cold

Perhaps the report’s most important finding is that traceability falls sharply after the first sorting stage. Trade statistics cannot follow Nordic-origin garments through later movements, and tracker locations rarely reveal whether an item was ultimately reused, recycled, stored, disposed of or exported again.

Some endpoints are telling nonetheless. Six trackers were last recorded at landfill-related locations: one Grade A item in Poland, four Grade B and C items in Slovakia and one Grade B item in Estonia. Two items appear to have entered recycling facilities in Slovakia and Poland. In other words, the risk of textiles becoming waste exists within Europe too, not only in distant markets.

Importantly, the researchers stress that the tracking exercise did not directly document dumping, uncontrolled burning or environmental leakage at African or Asian endpoints. The study therefore highlights a risk – that lower-grade textiles may reach markets with limited treatment infrastructure – without suggesting that such outcomes are common. What the end of a failing chain can look like was shown in our earlier piece on used clothing waste in Chile’s Atacama Desert.

Seven recommendations for policymakers

The authors are clear that the aim is not to restrict beneficial trade in used textiles. Instead, their recommendations focus on matching textiles more reliably with viable markets and minimising exports to countries with little prospect of reuse or recycling. They set out seven recommendations under three key objectives.

1. Reduce the quantity of low-grade textiles exported to developing countries

• A clearer approach to describing the quality and content of used-textile consignments.
• Stronger Nordic downstream accountability for low-grade textiles.
• Minimum standards for receiving facilities.

2. Improve domestic management of lower-grade textiles

• Expand regional recycling capacity.
• Use extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes to create stronger incentives for quality and circularity.

3. Increase domestic markets for used textiles, particularly higher grades

• Increase support for domestic reuse markets.
• Use EPR schemes to support reuse and repair.

Vita Ellis, Sustainability Consultant at Eunomia, summed up the moment by saying that Europe is entering “a new era of textile accountability”. In her view, however, traceability alone will not create a circular system: with collection volumes rising and product quality falling, textile quality and durability matter as much as collection rates – and Europe still has to answer where growing volumes will be sorted and reprocessed.

What does this mean for Hungary?

Hungary was not part of the study, but its lessons apply directly.

We sit next door to the sorting hubs. The two leading European endpoints for the trackers were Poland and Slovakia – in other words, Central and Eastern Europe, Hungary’s own region, is an important sorting and redistribution area for Nordic used textiles. The trackers last recorded at landfill-related sites in Slovakia are a reminder that the risk is not confined to Africa or Asia.

Collection is growing here too. According to MOHU, around 3,500 textile collection containers now operate nationwide, collected material is sorted in Székesfehérvár, and Hungarian estimates put annual textile waste at 60,000–80,000 tonnes. The more material enters the system, the more pressing the question of where the non-wearable remainder goes.

Regulation is moving towards traceability. The Joint Research Centre’s recent proposal on end-of-waste criteria for textiles would require batch-level records, an accredited quality management system and a statement of conformity from sorters – very much in line with the first three recommendations of the Eunomia report. Under the 2025 amendment of the Waste Framework Directive, member states must set up textile EPR schemes by 17 April 2028.

Domestic capacity is the key. If accountability for exports tightens, the non-wearable fraction will have to find a home at home or within the region. Our analysis of why textile-to-textile recycling struggles to get bank finance showed that expanding the container network is not enough: long-term offtake contracts and quality sorting are needed too. Meanwhile the logic of the waste hierarchy holds – what stays in circulation as a product never becomes waste, as we argued in our piece on the ReSTRAND Vintage Market.

Perhaps the key message of the Nordic experiment is that the used-textile trade is neither pure circularity nor simple waste export. It is a long chain with many players whose end nobody can see clearly today – and as long as that remains the case, responsibility cannot be clearly assigned either.

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FAQ – Tracking used textiles

What did Eunomia’s research on tracking used textiles examine?

It examined what happens to used textiles collected in the five Nordic countries after they are exported. The researchers analysed trade data, interviewed stakeholders in seven importing countries and fitted 200 garments with digital trackers, following them for six months. Together, the items passed through 23 countries.

Where did the 200 tracked garments end up?

71 per cent had their last recorded location in Europe, 18 per cent in Asia-Pacific, 9 per cent in Africa and 3 per cent in the Middle East. At country level, Poland (30 per cent), Slovakia (18 per cent) and Pakistan (14 per cent) led. The European share is somewhat inflated because not every item reached a final destination within six months.

Does a garment’s condition decide where it goes?

Partly. 56 per cent of poor-condition, Grade D items ended outside Europe, compared with 24 per cent of Grade A items, and only the Grade D difference was statistically significant. Good-quality garments also reached African and Asian markets, however, so condition alone does not determine a garment’s route or final outcome.

Did the study prove that clothing is dumped or burned in Africa or Asia?

No. The tracking exercise did not directly document dumping, uncontrolled burning or environmental leakage at African or Asian endpoints. The researchers highlight a risk instead, because traceability falls sharply after the first sorting stage. Six trackers were, however, last recorded at landfill-related locations within Europe, in Poland, Slovakia and Estonia.

What do the findings mean for Hungary?

The main European endpoints, Poland and Slovakia, lie in Hungary’s own region, so the question is directly relevant here. With MOHU’s collection network growing, the JRC’s end-of-waste proposal and textile EPR schemes due by 17 April 2028, traceability and domestic handling of the non-wearable fraction will matter increasingly in Hungary too.

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🔗 Official sources and references: 👉

• Eunomia & Mepex: Understanding Used and Waste Textiles Exports from the Nordics – report page
• Eunomia: Understanding Used and Waste Textiles Exports from the Nordics – full report (PDF)
• Eunomia news: New research explores how used and waste textiles are managed in global export markets
• European Commission: EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles

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