Who is to blame for the textile waste issue: producers or consumers?

Tom Atkin, february 2, 2026

“Oh clearly it’s the producers fault! They’re the one’s making too much and sending over 50 million tonnes to landfill per year”. 

This isn’t wrong but also doesn’t tell the full story. 

As consumers we play a larger role in the textile waste crisis than we like to admit. If we stop buying clothes, brands stop producing them. Problem solved?? 

How much clothing waste is produced per year? 

So, the facts. The scale of global clothing waste is hard to comprehend. 

It’s estimated that 350,000 tonnes of used clothing ends up in landfill per year from the UK alone. That’s 350,000 small cars. The Shard weighs 12,500 tonnes (ish), so 28 Shards! 350,000 tonnes is unimaginable. 

Then across the rest of the world, that number is 92 million tonnes. 92 million small cars. I can’t picture that in fast cars so it’s hard to picture it fast fashion. But know it’s vast. 

Most of this waste travels around the world in containers generally going to various countries in Africa via Pakistan to be “re-sold”. That is in speech marks because that’s rarely what happens these days. 

What happened to second-hand clothing in Africa? 

Used clothing, Mitumba, used to have value in African countries and would be re-sold at affordable prices, creating a huge 2nd hand fashion industry across Africa. It created millions of jobs and was fantastic for those involved. However, this is no longer the fairytale solution to excess clothing that is used to be. 

Ultra-fast fashion brands like Shein and Temu sell clothing so cheaply that it’s often cheaper to buy new than second-hand. Worse still, low-quality fast fashion garments are now entering the second-hand market. But they fall apart quickly and have virtually no resale value. 

This is terrible for those who sell at 2nd hand market stalls. Consumers either buy new for less, or avoid second-hand entirely because the quality is so poor. 

What does this lead to? Landfill. 

Why do fast fashion brands produce so much? 

Before I attempt to answer this, let’s go back 100 years.  

How many items of clothing do you reckon people owned? Generally, men would have a smart suit and an every-day outfit, maybe with a couple of jacket variations depending on the seasons, and a pair of shorts for the beach. Clothing was built for purpose, for longevity. 

Today, the average person owns north of 100 items of clothing, of which around 30% go un-worn. We all have our favourites! 

The main driver of this blatant overconsumption is capitalism. Brands have been able to make extortionate sums of money by marketing new trends, new colours, new patterns all on the newest “it girl” model who will ensure you buy. Consumers are made to feel inadequate for not having the latest thing. It’s clever marketing.  

Clothing is a basic need, but it’s been made a self-actualisation need by fashion brands.  

From a business perspective, overproduction makes sense. A fast fashion t-shirt can cost less than £2 to manufacture and sell for around £10. Even accounting for logistics and marketing, the margins are significant. Add economies of scale, and cheap clothing becomes incredibly profitable. Brands overproduce because it makes money. 

So, does this make clothing waste the brand’s fault?  

To an extent, yes. 

Why are consumers also responsible for textile waste? 

So, I’m a strong believer in taking responsibility for our actions. Yes, brands are the ones producing, marketing, selling and wasting. However, if we stopped buying so much the brands would have to stop producing so much. 

Patrick Grant wrote a book called, “Less: Stop buying so much rubbish. How having fewer, better things can make us happier”. He lays out the way we should be consuming, the way humans used to buy clothes and how we should nowadays. 

Ultimately, the consumer is in control. We are the ones who buy the clothing, or don’t buy the clothing. If we stopped buying clothing altogether, clothing brands would stop producing because there would no longer be money in it. 

How do we solve the clothing waste problem? 

Global ban on clothing production? Global ban on fashion so clothing goes back to being purely functional? 

Unrealistic and not fun! Fashion is a fantastic industry, and we need to keep it going but not in the same way it is today. 

We solve the clothing waste issue by producing using circular supply chains.  

What is circular fashion? 

• We can make garments from 100% natural fibres, so they are biodegradable.  

• We can make garments from 100% recycled materials, so no new fibres need to be grown or watered.  

• We can produce new clothing from old clothing.  

All of these options significantly reduce the environmental impact of the fashion industry. If fashion were fully circular, overconsumption wouldn’t automatically equal landfill. Old clothes would become new clothes, not waste. 

According to Vincent Stanley, Director of Philosophy at Patagonia, 90% of environmental damage is determined at the design stage. What the garment is made of, whether it’s made well, whether it’s designed to be repairable. 

Producers and consumers must act together 

Producers can: 

• Design sustainably 

• Choose more responsible materials 

• Build circular supply chains 

Consumers can: 

• Buy less 

• Buy better 

• Support sustainable brands 

Textile waste isn’t caused by producers or consumers alone. It’s a result of both, so solving the issue required responsibility from both sides.