EU consumers' wardrobes are expanding at an accelerating pace. Statistics show that last year, the average EU citizen purchased 95 textile items, up 12% from 2019; meanwhile, Europe discards approximately 9 million tonnes of polyester textiles each year—equivalent to the weight of 900 Eiffel Towers. Against the backdrop of ever-falling ultra-fast fashion prices, textiles have become nearly disposable in the eyes of many Europeans.

But all is not lost. Textile fiber-to-fiber recycling technology has advanced to the stage where it can be deployed, and the bottleneck has shifted to the EU's capacity for coordination at the bloc level. With Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) rules about to take effect and a circular economy act already in the pipeline, Europe has an opportunity to turn textile waste management into a strategic advantage.

This topic was recently discussed in a sponsored podcast episode produced by POLITICO Studio, focusing on the question: can the EU rise to this challenge? Guests included Patrik Frisk, CEO of polyester fiber regeneration company Reju; Ekaterina Stoyanova, Senior Policy Advisor at Brussels-based recycling industry organization Recycling Europe; and Cveta Majtanovic, Sustainability Director at Rematrix, one of Italy's producer responsibility organizations.

According to the episode description, the content was supported by sponsor Reju, with the discussion pointing toward establishing an EPR system in Europe and creating incentives to reward design geared toward textile fiber-to-fiber reuse.

For the secondhand clothing industry, this set of data and policy signals outlines an upstream transformation: as Europe uses EPR to shift recycling costs toward the production end and guides circular design through incentives, both the scale of recycled raw material supply for polyester textiles and the trade landscape could be reshaped.

Source: SPONSORED EPISODE: What is polyester worth? · Originally published 2026-09-28