Albert Alberich: "The system is on the verge of collapse."

The textile reuse sector is at a critical juncture, as revealed by research published today by ARA. We spoke with Albert Alberich, founder of the social cooperative Moda Re- (Caritas), about its limitations, challenges, and potential solutions. How can we prevent the European system, which is meant to guarantee the reuse and recovery of tons of clothing, footwear, and textiles of all kinds, from becoming just another link in a global chain of environmental and social outsourcing?

Social organizations have historically been the backbone of textile collection and reuse in Spain. How would you describe the current situation of the sector?

— It's the perfect storm: on the one hand, there's such a surplus of used clothing that its value on international markets has plummeted, with a particularly precarious situation in Europe, a major exporter. On the other hand, this has been compounded by the delay in the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system, the well-known SCRAP [for the textile industry]. We expected it to be operational by April 2025, but due to a legislative delay in the European directive, it won't be implemented until late 2026 or early 2027. The collapse extends from Sweden to Spain, including Italy, Germany… Even in France, the crisis is so severe that the government has had to intervene to strengthen the system.

What role does theultra-fast fashion Is this the saturation process that the managing entities are warning about?

— The arrival ofultra-fast fashion In the last ten years, this trend has accelerated dramatically. One statistic particularly struck me: in 2009-2010, at the height of the economic crisis and with 20% unemployment, Spanish households spent around €24 billion annually on clothing and footwear. By 2019—with an additional 1.8 million inhabitants—spending had decreased by €2 billion. However, during that same period, the amount of clothing entering the market practically doubled. The result is clear: lower quality and lower spending, but with a much greater exploitation of natural resources.

How has this avalanche of poor-quality clothing impacted managers like yourselves?

— For us, it has meant the closure of international markets for used clothing. In Spain, only a small percentage is reused here; half of the product was traditionally exported, mainly to Africa, some to Eastern Europe, and less to the Middle East. What wasn't reusable was sent to Southeast Asia to be transformed into low-value materials, and only the contaminated fraction went to energy recovery [incineration]. Now all of this has become more complicated. China has become a giant exporter of used clothing and is flooding the same African and Asian markets that European products used to reach. This makes it much more difficult to sell the clothing we sort here, which already has an added processing cost. We process textiles to add value, but nobody wants to buy them. What's the point of having the clothing in a warehouse if it's just going to end up being burned? The volumes are simply enormous.

How does this bottleneck affect recycling?

— European recycling doesn't yet have the capacity to absorb the volumes that previously went to Southeast Asia. There are projects underway—chemical and mechanical recycling, for example—but not yet at an industrial level, and now we even have to pay for these materials to be accepted. Meanwhile, local councils are starting to shoulder costs that aren't their responsibility, and some collection points are already running out of containers. If these disappear, the clothing will end up in the general waste stream and in landfills, with a higher economic and environmental cost. In short: without a temporary solution until the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system is implemented, the textile reuse and recycling system is on the verge of collapse.

Moda Reafirme has stated its desire to achieve 100% processed goods here. What efforts are you making to achieve this?

— Let's continue with the expansion plan, because in the long term it's a clear necessity. The largest plant is in Sabadell, probably the largest in southern Europe, which is now operating at full capacity, as is the one in Madrid. We also have a plant in Bilbao that has been operational since 2011 and has been expanding its capacity, and the one in Valencia has been operating since 2015. The one in Santiago de Compostela—currently under construction—is progressing as planned: it will be operational in September 2026. What's missing to cover the entire country is a plant in southern Spain, in Castilla-La Mancha or Andalusia. The goal is to be able to sort everything and guarantee that exports consist only of recycled or genuinely reused products.

Our research has shown that some artifacts collected in Spain end up traveling as far as Dubai or Karachi, and even back to Europe. Is this a symptom of an overwhelmed system or an inevitable consequence of a globalized market?

— Certainly, exports of used clothing have increased significantly and are causing serious problems in the Global South. New directives—mandatory selective collection and waste transfer—aim for stricter controls. However, the key is to export only what is truly reusable, with rigorous inspections and by eliminating the practice of sending waste as if it were secondhand goods. It makes no sense to send items to other countries that we ourselves wouldn't accept. International reuse is positive if it is well-regulated: just as here, a secondhand item can prevent the production of a new one and thus save materials and reduce emissions, this is also true for receiving countries.

And how do you interpret this increase in imports of used clothing from countries like the United Arab Emirates?

— We don't need to import clothing for our stores, as we are major exporters of reusable garments. What other operators do is beyond our control, although it seems strange to me, unless it's related to the underground economy or irregular flows to Morocco, where there's a very active black market for used clothing. In Spain, this phenomenon is less pronounced, but Germany collects nearly a million tons of clothing annually, which is why it has developed decentralized sorting systems over the years. The German company Soex is an example: it had plants in Germany, but also in the United Arab Emirates and Chile. This model—collecting in the north, sorting in the south, re-importing the best—is precisely what the EU wants to restrict.

Should mandatory traceability be considered for all clothing exported from the EU, or do you think this is unfeasible within the current competitive framework?

— Yes, it is essential to prevent human rights violations and fraud. It must be possible to clearly differentiate between reusable and recycled products. Traceability is possible with political will and inspection. We have visited the sorting plants in the Emirates on occasion, and their facilities are adequate, but we do not have sufficient capacity for continuous monitoring.