Stitching up the textile loophole in the Basel Convention

The global trade in used textiles and textile waste has expanded rapidly alongside the rise of fast fashion and synthetic fibre production. Yet despite textiles increasingly serving as a plastic-dominant and chemically complex waste stream, they remain largely outside the scope of effective international waste trade controls. 

Large volumes of textiles are exported under the label of donations or destined for reuse, while in practice many shipments contain low-quality or unsellable waste materials that overwhelm local systems, leading to pollution that harms the environment and human health.

This briefing, developed with the support of more than 70 civil society organisations ahead of OEWG-15 to the Basel Convention, outlines why textile waste has become a major governance gap in the global waste trade system. It highlights serious concerns for environmentally sound management and calls on Parties to the Basel Convention to close this loophole by subjecting textiles to stronger international oversight.