August 25 is Germany's "Old Clothes Day." On that day, the North Rhine-Westphalia State Statistical Office released the latest data showing that in 2024 public recycling companies in the state collected a total of 36,145 tonnes of old textiles, growing for the second consecutive year. At the same time, the nationwide old clothes recycling situation has also attracted much attention.

According to the North Rhine-Westphalia Consumer Advice Center, about 64% of textile waste across Germany is collected through public containers, with a total recovery volume of one million tonnes, equivalent to about 2 billion items of clothing. However, another 374,000 tonnes of textiles are discarded as household waste each year; in Cologne alone, more than 6,000 tonnes of old clothes and shoes enter residual waste every year.

How should clothes that are no longer needed be handled properly? Environmental organizations and recycling companies offer this advice: intact and clean old clothes can be donated or sold, severely damaged ones should be disposed of as residual waste, and only when local recycling companies provide special collection should they be sorted separately.

In recent years, the number of old clothes recycling bins in Germany has decreased noticeably. Bonn Orange, a recycling company in Bonn, explained that because fast fashion has led to declining recycling quality, energy and transport costs have risen, and the international market is saturated, recycling prices have fallen sharply, so many commercial recyclers have reduced or even withdrawn their recycling bins.

Some areas have tried door-to-door pickup services, such as Dortmund and Oberhausen. However, a similar service in Essen was terminated due to insufficient demand.

Germany's old clothes recycling system still has scale: the German Red Cross operates about 800 old clothes shops nationwide, the largest number of any organization; in addition, some charitable organizations and commercial second-hand shops such as Oxfam and Humana also accept donations and provide online resale channels, such as platforms including Vinted, Momox Fashion, Depop and Kleinanzeigen...

At present, second-hand clothing accounts for 10% of turnover in the German market, and the share is expected to continue rising. But environmental organizations stress that second-hand consumption cannot fully solve environmental problems, and the problem of goods being replaced too quickly remains severe. For this reason, they recommend that consumers buy fewer items, choose durable and environmentally friendly products, and support circular design, repair and reuse to extend the service life of clothing.

Source: Spende, Verkauf oder Müll? So entscheidest du, was mit deinen Klamotten passiert · Originally published on 2026-08-25