About the fate of unsold clothes, the responsibility of producers and consumers and the limits of recycling.
Jochen Strähle is an international fashion retail specialist and textile expert, he is currently working and researching at Reutlingen University
KURIER: The fashion industry sits on mountains of unsold goods. What will happen to it?
Jochen Strähle: First, the goods are thrown on the market well below the price. A part will be stored and sold again next winter. Some clothes are resold in Eastern Europe or may even be burned. The pressure on goods will lead to a drop in prices, there is no getting around it.
Goods are burned to keep the price stable. What does this mean?
The luxury brands started with it. Before the goods are sold and the brand value is damaged, it is better to burn them. Most of them have refrained from this policy. It's cheaper for others. Primark is so cheap because the goods come straight from the manufacturer to the store. At the moment when the remaining goods have to be packed, sent around or stored several times, personnel and transport costs rise, the added value is zero. Burning can be cheaper, ecologically highly questionable of course. But it is also the case that the consumer gets the cheap prices because of this.
Dealers give customers responsibility, customers give producers. Who is right?
It is concerning everybody. There can only be joint projects that lead to an improvement in the overall situation. The textile value chain is long, and a large number of actors are involved in it. The industry is different from the auto or tech industry. There are few big players, but many small players. Since nobody dominates the business, the individual power, the responsibility and thus the effectiveness of the respective measures are lower. Social standards are a big issue in Western Europe. But the print is then simply passed on to suppliers, to the producers. You then have to implement what we demand, but are not at the table during the discussion.
Why is the end of the value chain so opaque?
For a long time, the issue of a continuous circular economy was ignored. For most, clothing was not a product that was put back into the recycling process, nor were many made to be recyclable. It has simply not been seen for a long time to be able to do anything with clothes instead of burning them.
Is it true that there are still no working recycling methods?
The technologies are there, it's more about the infrastructure. Recycled goods are often more expensive in the end because they are sorted and buttons and labels are removed. Recycling also always leads to poorer raw material. If the clothing is made of pure cotton, recycling is easier than with a fabric with natural and synthetic fibers. The process is often too time-consuming for a product of poorer quality to come out in the end, while textiles for a new item of clothing are available on the market more cheaply.
