Taiwan discards about 82,000 metric tons of clothing each year. At 3.2 items per kilogram, that equals 500 garments entering the waste stream every minute. The Resource Circulation Administration of the Environment Ministry points out that fast fashion drives mass purchasing and rapid turnover through promotions, significantly shortening the period clothing is used by consumers and causing the volume of second-hand clothes to surge. Such products are not designed with durability as a premise, and the demand side of the second-hand market may not buy them either, so in the end many can only be sent to incinerators.

On the second-hand clothing platform side, practitioners are trying to extend the usage chain of garments. Platform founder Phoebe explains that clothing sent in by the public must be inspected item by item for flaws such as yellowed collars and damage. After passing review, items are measured, photographed in a studio for cataloging with details noted, then disinfected, organized, and listed. The platform currently has over 200,000 items listed, of which nearly 79% sell successfully. She observes that consumers' concerns have shifted from "is second-hand clothing clean?" to "does the size fit, and can this brand still be bought?" — showing that acceptance is rising, and buying second-hand clothes is gradually becoming a green lifestyle choice rather than just a way to save money.

But sorting old clothes requires a great deal of manpower, and overall "usage volume" is declining year by year. The increment brought by fast fashion is hard to fully absorb through resale alone. Zhong Yuntai, deputy head of the Sustainable Consumption and Recycling Section of the Resource Circulation Administration, believes that if brands do not change their operating model of overproduction and clearance discounts, second-hand resale will ultimately treat the symptoms but not the root cause.

To this end, the Resource Circulation Administration established the "Textile Circular Alliance," linking the recycling end, fiber regeneration plants, brand channels, and design academic and research institutions. The goal is to manage everything from source design through to back-end disposal, implementing a "clothing-to-clothing" circular economy. Academia is acting in parallel. Lai Jingyi, assistant professor in the Department of Fashion Design at Shih Chien University, brings the concept of sustainability into the classroom, guiding students to start from materials and tailoring structure to think about how to extend a garment's lifespan. She mentions that young people may wear something once, finish taking social media photos, and then set it aside, and the item immediately becomes trash. Therefore, she hopes design will balance functionality and diversity while incorporating social responsibility.

For the old clothing trade and recycling industry, the significance of this data set lies in this: when upstream waste volume continues to expand and downstream second-hand demand grows only limitedly, sorting, resale, and export disposal alone can no longer absorb the increment, and coordination among the recycling end, brands, and fiber regeneration links is being pushed to the forefront.

Source: Taiwan Discards 82,000 Tons of Clothing Annually! 500 Items Per Minute Become Trash, Fast Fashion Becomes Environmental Killer · Originally published 2026-09-18