The representation of the European Community in Spain has interviewed the director of Moda re-, a sustainable and supportive project, which is supported byNextGenerationEUfunds . With the change of season comes the time to change wardrobe. And with it, the opportunity to rethink our clothing consumption.
Textile consumption in Europe
Every year, the EU generates 12.6 million tonnes of textile waste, of which 5.2 million tonnes alone is equivalent to clothing and footwear. This translates into around 12 kilos of waste per person per year. However, only 22% of post-consumer textile waste is collected separately for recycling. This is why in 2022 the European Commission published the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles, which aims to create a greener and more competitive sector. It also aims to accelerate the separate collection, sorting, reuse and recycling of textile products. As part of this strategy, a proposal to amend the Waste Framework Directive (WFD), presented by the Commission in July 2023 and whose negotiation will be concluded already in the next European mandate, proposes new obligations in the textile sector.
The origin of Moda re-
Moda re-, a project that began with Caritas in the early 1990s, has been working along this path for more than 30 years. “Moda re- was born out of that tradition, more than 70 years ago, when families donated clothes they no longer wore to Caritas. When the volume of garments began to grow, they thought that the processing of these clothes could generate jobs,” explains Albert Alberich, the current director of Moda re-.
Thus, they set up shops in different Spanish cities with the aim that the delivery of the clothes could generate jobs.
In doing so, they created new jobs for people at risk of social exclusion. This procedure has continued to the present day. “At the moment we have more than 1,400 jobs, of which more than 750 are reserved for people at risk of social exclusion. Our aim is that these people are trained with us and acquire the necessary skills to be able to enter the mainstream business world later on. Let’s say that we act in the opposite direction of a commercial company. Once we have trained a professional, we want him or her to move on to another company as soon as possible so that someone else can start on the road to reintegration,” says Albert.
Environmental management of clothes
As the amount of clothes they received grew, they realised that there were a significant number of garments that could be recycled, but there was no alternative to taking them to landfill. Therefore, in addition to second-hand shops, they started to set up industrial treatment plants for better environmental management. In the period 2010-2014 they started up three treatment plants, located in Bilbao, Valencia and Barcelona. These plants, at the time, were pioneers in southern Europe.
“Thanks to these plants we were able to take a very important step in the management of clothing and its preparation for reuse and recycling. We classify the garments in three general lines: reusable, that is, they can be used again; those that no longer have the dignity of being used, but can be recycled; and the rejects, which could have been taken to the landfill, but with which we make an energetic valorisation“.
Moda re- estimates that around 500,000 tonnes of textile waste is generated in Spain each year, of which only just over 100,000 tonnes are collected separately. Moda re- collects 43% of this volume and the project led by Albert is working so that its plants will have a treatment capacity of more than 40,000 tonnes per year by 2025.
European Environment Agency: Now is the time to accelerate the shift to a more circular Europe |
The arrival of European funds, a vital boost
This growth has been made possible thanks to the arrival of NextGenerationEU funds. “Receiving this support from the European Union has been vital for us. Thanks to this economic boost, we have been able to develop 15 projects that are gaining momentum, ranging from the collection of clothes to their management. In just three years we have gone from 80 shops to 130 throughout Spain and we are closing the year with the opening of 30 corners in hypermarkets,” Albert points out. Specifically, Moda re- has benefited from investment lines for the promotion of the social economy within the scope of Component 23 of the Spanish Recovery and Resilience Plan.
These funds have allowed Moda re- to finance a series of innovations, such as the life cycle analysis to know the impact of the actions, a project to sensor the largest fleet of containers in Spain, thereby optimising collection routes and saving greenhouse gas emissions, a pilot project for a social delivery App, the Intranet, part of the digitalisation of the collection process with the implementation of tools such as ERP, POS…
Another recently launched project, Moda re- en route, was created with the fundamental objective of bringing responsible consumption and the supply of used clothing to the populations of empty Spain. Through this new action, Moda Re- also participates as a partner in the project trans
Encouraging the consumption of second-hand clothes
Sustainable fashion consumption is a pending challenge for today’s society. In fact, Moda re- currently has a triple objective. On the one hand, the foundational one, which is to create jobs for people at risk of social exclusion; on the other hand, to improve the environmental impact of the textile sector; and, a third one, which is to break the entry barrier to the purchase of second-hand clothes.
“In Spain we are far behind in terms of second-hand clothing consumption. In internal surveys we have carried out with our consumers, just over 70% of those who have bought products in our shops were doing so for the first time. We are therefore working, through talks in schools and colleges and information campaigns on social media, to break down stigma, improve our offer and bring it closer to the public”, says Albert.
In this way, now that weeks are coming in which consumption increases significantly, Albert Alberich gives the following advice: “Before going out shopping, let’s look at our wardrobe. Surely there are garments that are in perfect use and can have a new life. We should try, as a society, to make fewer purchases and opt for higher quality products“.
More information: European Commission Representation in Spain
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