site.btaBulgarians Discard 100,000 Tonnes of Textile Waste per Year

Every year 100,000 tons of clothes and household textiles are thrown away in Bulgaria, which is equivalent to more than five times the weight of the National Palace of Culture in Sofia. The alarming figures are part of the exhibition entitled "Textiles are the new plastics", which opened on Monday at the entrance to the Sea Garden in Varna, on the Black Sea, and will run until July 17, the Bulgarian Association of Circular Textile (BACT), which is organizing the exhibition, said Monday.

The initiative focuses on the environmental consequences of the textile industry and the possible ways to tackle them. Textiles have been called the new plastics because the overproduction of clothing and the increase in textile waste worldwide are having a negative impact on the environment on a par with plastics. The objective is to highlight the importance of changing one's habits and personal footprint by providing real examples and figures of environmental savings.

The exhibition presents facts and trends about the textile industry and its impact on the global environment. Good examples in Bulgaria (Varna is home to the three largest textile eco-centres in the country) are presented to counterbalance the harmful effects of overproduction, consumption and textile waste generation. BACT members will be implementing activities to extend the life of textile products, in line with the concept of circular economy. Contributions are presented with facts and data on environmental savings. The basis of the examples are calculations based on the quantity collected and its subsequent utilisation.

In 2018, members of the association - the Varna company Texcycle and the Swiss Texaid - placed the first containers for textile waste in Bulgaria as a step towards the introduction of a separate textile collection system at national level. This is ahead of the legal requirements, according to which a separate collection system for textiles, similar to other waste streams - plastics, glass, paper, etc. - must be introduced in every EU member state by 2025, the association points out. Texcycle started with 20 containers in 2018 and currently BACT member companies have over 320 specialized containers for separate collection of textiles from households across the country. Collected textiles are recovered, and prepared for recycling and reuse.