Brazil discards 4 million tons of textile waste a year

Around 4 million tons of textile waste are discarded each year by Brazilian households. Last year alone, each home discarded 44 kilos of clothing and footwear.

The data were released by the international consultancy S2F Partners, an intelligence hub specializing in waste management and circular economy.

“Unlike other segments that have started implementing selective collection, the textile sector is yet to incorporate initiatives in this direction,” said Carlos Silva Filho, a senior executive at S2F Partners and a member of the United Nations (UN) Council on Waste Issues.

“Challenges still remain when it comes to the properties of this type of waste, like the decomposition time of some fabrics—which can take five to ten years, while others can take hundreds of years to decompose,” he pointed out.

Considering the total amount of waste disposed of, each Brazilian threw away around 382 kilos of materials in 2023, most of which organic waste (45.3%), followed by dry waste (33.6%). Textile, leather, and rubber accounted for 5.6 percent of this total, or 4.6 million tons in the year.

Greenhouse effect

The textile sector is currently estimated to account for two to eight percent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide and to consume around 215 trillion liters of water a year—the equivalent of 86 million Olympic swimming pools.

Fast fashion, Silva Filho argued, which is the large-scale production of clothes with low prices and high turnover, is leading people to buy more but wear clothing for less time.

“The sheer amount of textile waste discarded in homes is a red flag urging us to think about priority sustainability efforts on the production line and in the world of fashion, with materials and processes that can extend the lifespan of clothes and increase reuse,” he said.

The UN adviser also advocated more conscious consumption and measures by public authorities to regulate the correct disposal of these materials and strengthen attempts to reuse them.

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