Every year, the average Irish citizen generates 35kg of textile waste. These discarded clothes often end up in incinerators and landfills or being dumped abroad.

This investigation was part-funded through crowdfunding (€280 of the proposed €3,140). Given the increasing amount of textile waste produced in Ireland, we felt this issue required urgent attention. By focusing on clothes-buying trends, we were able to complete this project with a narrower scope thanks to additional support from our investigative fund.

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In Irish households, textiles make up 10% of our general waste and 3% of our recycling bin. The EU estimates that less than 1% of EU textile waste is recycled into new clothing.

This investigation will delve into textile waste by Irish companies and companies that sell extensively within the Irish market in the fast fashion industry.

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In addition to examining companies, our team will investigate government action. Minister of State Ossian Smyth stated that practices like fast fashion “will be difficult to change” because “they are cultural”. The government has written a Waste Action Plan but we will find out if it is working.

Textile production and recycling is complex but this Waste Action Plan will fail unless the government can tackle this area. It is one of the plan’s seven priority value chains.

A number of key actions were promised to deal with textile waste, including the banning of textiles from the general waste bin, landfill and incineration. Other actions include the establishment of a textile industry action group and promotion of eco-design. The government appointed a Textiles Advisory Group in 2022 and we will scrutinise what has this group done so far.

The investigation will also look at how the government is incentivising companies to produce more sustainable textiles and how they are regulating what happens to post-consumer textiles.

Want to see this investigation happen? Click the 'Fund This Proposal' button.

You can contact us at [email protected] and find out how we work here. Our investigations are sourced from and crowdfunded by the public.