A Runway To Nowhere

Taboo

Beyond the visibility of clothing piling up in African landfills, luxury brands have long faced scrutiny for destroying perfectly wearable stock to protect brand value and pricing. The landfilling and incineration of unsold textiles is estimated to generate 5.6 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions annually. Growing concern, both within and outside the fashion industry has prompted an expansive regulatory response from, among others, the European Union (“EU”).

From 19 July 2026, large companies operating in the EU, defined as those with more than 250 employees, a turnover of exceeding EUR50 million, or total assets above EUR25 million, will be prohibited from destroying unsold apparel, footwear and accessories.

The ban applies to products placed on the market but never sold, as well as customer returns. Contained in the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (“ESPR”), the prohibition will extend to medium-sized enterprises by 2030.

A list of exceptions is provided, some referring to the protection of intellectual property, which may provide a loophole, especially since destruction of unsold goods has historically been based on the protection of brand identity and price. Nevertheless, the decision intertwines with the existing requirements of the ESPR, under which Digital Product Passports for textiles will convey information on durability, repairability and end-of-life handling to consumers and recyclers. 

The ESPR provides detailed steps which ultimately supports the extended producer responsibility (“EPR”) for the fashion industry. On 9 September 2025, the European Parliament approved amendments to the Waste Framework Directive, requiring all Member States to implement EPR schemes for textiles. These measures transfer responsibility for collection, sorting, re-use and recycling to producers, regardless of where they are based. Any entity placing textile products on the EU market will be subject to these obligations.

Local conversations

South Africa’s policy conversation is moving in a similar direction. Following workshops held in Cape Town, KwaZulu-Natal and Johannesburg in 2025, GreenCape and WRAP, with support from the Anglo American Foundation, established an advisory committee to explore the implementation of a voluntary circular textiles initiative. The Potential Pathways and Value Proposition paper, published in May 2026, underscores the urgency of intervention. Parliamentary briefings and municipal records show that landfill airspace is rapidly diminishing, with many sites approaching capacity.

At the heart of the circular economy is the rejection of the traditional linear model of production, consumption and disposal. Instead, circularity seeks to keep products in use for as long as possible. Waste is inevitable, but how it is defined and managed determines whether a circular system succeeds or fails.

The rise of low-cost fashion has entrenched the perception that clothing holds little residual value, encouraging premature disposal. But should textile waste be destined for landfill at all? Within the textile industry, it is helpful to distinguish three streams that flow into this legal bucket:

• Pre-industrial waste: including off-cuts, misprints, surplus trims and deadstock.
• Pre-consumer waste: comprising unsold, returned and sample goods discarded by brands.
• Post-consumer waste, being clothing and household textiles discarded or donated by consumers.

From a regulatory perspective, South Africa’s National Environmental Management: Waste Act adopts a broad, discard‑based definition of waste, mirroring the EU Waste Framework Directive. Any substance or object that is discarded, intended to be discarded, or required to be discarded is treated as waste. This approach is consistent across major jurisdictions. In the United States, “solid waste” encompasses discarded material of any kind. Japan’s Waste Management and Public Cleansing Act applies to a wide range of unwanted solids and liquids, while China’s Solid Waste Pollution Prevention and Control Law extends to solids, semi‑solids and certain liquids generated through production and consumption. Across these legal regimes, the decisive factor is the act or intention of discarding, not the inherent value of the material.

When does a textile become waste?

Scarce landfill capacity should be reserved for residual materials that cannot realistically be re-used, repaired, remanufactured or down-cycled.

South Africa’s landfill standards already push in that direction: the National Norms and Standards for Disposal of Waste to Landfill restrict liquids, high-moisture waste and, over time, high-calorific hazardous wastes and mandate diversion of recyclable streams. These standards are reinforced by the Waste Classification and Management Regulations, which require generators to classify and manage wastes in a manner that enables re-use, recycling or recovery prior to disposal.

A discard‑based legal definition means that reusable and recyclable textiles are technically classified as waste, triggering regulatory controls. In the absence of appropriate infrastructure, those controls can inadvertently channel valuable materials into already overburdened landfills. The EU’s new textile EPR system offers an instructive counterpoint. It aligns legal responsibility with funding, data collection and mandatory targets for separate collection, sorting and re‑use. Digital Product Passports further enhance this framework by providing product‑specific guidance on end‑of‑life handling.

A new hope

How can South Africa’s textile EPR system be trail-blazing rather than counterfeit in its design? Normally regulation comes first but the fashion industry has been unregulated for decades. Overregulation creates new problems which is unwelcome for an ailing industry.

Over the coming articles, we will explore the existing regulations in South Africa and compare it with international textile regulation. While global trends provide valuable guidance, a system tailored to South Africa’s economic, social and infrastructural realities will be essential if circularity is to deliver meaningful and lasting benefits.

Proving that regulation need not be the starting point, Clothes to Good, a non-profit organisation, has been operating an informal collection, sorting, upcycling, downcycling and social upliftment programme for more than 15 years. Through its partnership with H&M, Clothes to Good manages garments donated at H&M stores nationwide, making it the only local NPO with a successful large-scale textile recycling programme of its kind. This unique model has provided an income to hundreds of female entrepreneurs, including mothers of children with disabilities, creating jobs and micro-businesses. The clothes are sorted into three categories:

• garments suitable for re-wear are channelled into Clothes to Good's micro-business programme, supporting women in low-income communities to earn a living through the sale of pre-loved fashion;
• items not suitable for reuse are transformed into educational toys, which are then donated to under-resourced schools; and
• textiles unfit for any form of re-use are recycled into fibres for use in the automotive, mattress and construction industries.

Conclusion

The fashion industry stands at a crossroads. Internationally, the EU is setting a clear direction through binding regulations, bans on destroying unsold goods, mandatory EPR schemes and Digital Product Passports. South Africa need not wait for regulation to catch up with these trends. Initiatives such as GreenCape’s voluntary circular textiles programme and the proven H&M-Clothes to Good partnership show that meaningful progress is already possible through collaboration and innovation.

The challenge ahead lies in scaling these efforts: building infrastructure, integrating the informal economy and developing a regulatory framework that reflects local realities. A circular textile economy is not only environmentally imperative, but socially transformative, offering job creation, community upliftment and a pathway to a more resilient industry. The runway need not lead to nowhere; with deliberate design, it can lead to a future where nothing is wasted and everyone benefits.

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