The new rules for clothing collection were intended to keep the textile waste in Sweden and increase recycling.
But in practice, large quantities of clothing are sent abroad, while advanced Swedish facilities are still.
– It is terrible that our old clothes will end up in Lithuania, says Stina Larsson (C), Environmental policy spokesperson.
At Sydskåne’s waste stock company Sysav in Skåne there is an advanced machine that can sort end -of -life textiles. Although it is fully functioning, it stands still.
– Here we have sorted textiles in bales that are waiting for provision. Some bales have been here for a couple of years already, says Sysav’s communications manager Anna Vilén.
The reason is that it is cheaper to produce new clothing than to recycle fibers, and the market for recycled textiles is almost non -existent.
– The market for fiber to this type of recycling is not quite there yet. What we sort we store in anticipation of provision, says Vilén.
C: “Undermines the credibility”
When the European Parliament decided on the rules in 2018, all Swedish parties voted yes. Linnéa Engström, former EU parliamentarian, is adhering to her decision:
– The ambition was good, but then you didn’t come all the way. It is very expensive and difficult to take care of these clothes today.
The EU plans to introduce producer responsibility, which would force the clothing companies to pay for recycling. But the Center Party is critical of the fact that the collection requirements before the producer responsibility take effect.
– The government has made a decision in the wrong order. This undermines the credibility of our waste management. It does not mean that people want to sort their clothes anymore, but rather less, says Stina Larsson.
So the review went to
TV4 The News Team has placed GPS transmitters in broken garments in Luleå, Östersund, Stockholm and Malmö. When the transmitters are followed, it is clear that three out of four garments thrown into recycling go up in smoke.
The fleece jacket from Luleå ended up almost four miles away in Boden, where it was burned in a heating plant. The Östersund jacket moved only about fifty meters to a nearby room, before the signal disappeared.
The Stockholm and Malmö garments went much further, by boat across the Baltic Sea to Lithuania where they were manually sorted at Humana’s textile facility outside Vilnius. From the sorting, the Stockholm jacket was passed on to incineration in Kaunas, while the Malmö shirt was burned up at another heating plant in Vilnius.