Around 60 clothing per person is bought in Germany annually, according to the environmental organization Greenpeace. Sooner or later they end up in the old clothing container or in the residual waste. A new EU directive is to ensure more recycling in the textile sector since the beginning of the year, but this is difficult. What you can do with sorted clothes.
Since January 1, 2025, a new EU directive has been in effect for disposal textiles: shirts, pants and all other substances have to be collected separately from the remaining waste. This is to prevent almost 80 percent of old textiles from being burned or deposited in the EU as before. Instead, the separate disposal should boost textile recycling. According to the European Parliament, Europeans throw around eleven kilograms of clothing average a year.
One reason for this is that many countries collect only a small fraction of clothing and fabrics separately to other garbage. Germany is still doing relatively well in a European comparison: between 50 and 65 percent of the old textiles are collected in this country – however, this only includes clothing that are still intact and portable. Broken and dirty textiles should have been disposed of in residual waste so far.
Despite the EU directive in the residual waste, intolerable clothing
This could change due to the new EU directive because it does not explicitly differentiate between age, portable and broken or dirty clothing. Nevertheless, consumer advice centers, the association of municipal companies and many municipalities continue to advise to dispose of such no longer portable clothing in the residual waste. The reason for this is simple: there is currently no effective collective and recycling system for fabrics that can no longer be worn. Many clothing fabrics consist of mixed fibers, which makes their recycling very complex and expensive – their recycling is currently almost impossible.
That is why old clothing is first sorted after the disposal in the container: Usable parts go either at social and second-hand shops or are used to produce insulation fabrics and cleaning flaps- the rest ends up in the trash. In order not to make the sorting even more difficult, clothes or those with holes and cracks should be disposed of directly in the residual waste.
Donations of clothing to non -profit organizations
If you want your disposal clothing to benefit non -profit organizations, you should pay attention to serious old clothing containers when handing over. Uncepted containers have often been set up in recent years; With these often remains unclear where the donated clothing will be sold later and who ultimately benefits from it. Official clothing collection points, on the other hand, have complete contact details. In addition, many of them can be online ataltkleiderspende.de be viewed.
A seal, which is helpful for orientation, also offers fair evaluation – an association of non -profit old clothing collectors in Germany. If you want to be a partner there, you are committed to being organized exclusively; In addition, all collected clothing donations must support social purposes directly or indirectly.
Direct clothing donation to organizations
In addition to the public old clothing container, there is also the possibility to donate old jackets and pants directly to charitable facilities. Many organizations such as local social department stores, women’s shelters or homeless aids regularly publish information about which type of clothing donations are currently particularly needed.
The clothing donation at the German clothing foundation works particularly conveniently: clothing can be sent here free of charge by post. On their websitea free package label for DHL or GLS package shipments can be downloaded and printed out. The non -profit organization sells the donations sent partly in social shops and supports other clothing chambers with the proceeds. The other clothing is donated directly to people in Germany or abroad.