Spinning Greenwash

December 2025 Report

New report: Spinning Greenwash coming soon!

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Take-Back Trickery: graphic of piles of clothes not being recycled

Take-Back Trickery: an investigation into clothing take-back schemes

This report tracked 21 items from 10 fashion brands through their take-back schemes. Despite the slogans, three quarters of items were either destroyed, left in warehouses or exported to Africa.

Jul 2023 Report
Fossil Fashion Today’s fashion industry has become synonymous with overconsumption, a snowballing waste crisis, widespread pollution and the exploitation of workers in global supply chains. What is less well known is that the insatiable fast fashion business model is enabled by cheap synthetic fibres, which are produced from fossil fuels, mostly oil and gas. Polyester, the darling of the fast fashion industry, is found in over half of all textiles and production is projected to skyrocket in the future. Our campaign exposes the clear correlation between the growth of synthetic fibres and the fast fashion industry – one cannot exist without the other. The campaign calls for prompt, radical legislative action to slow-down the fashion industry and decouple it from fossil fuels. Take-Back Trickery: an investigation into clothing take-back schemes July 2023 Between August 2022 and July 2023, Changing Markets tracked 21 items from 10 fashion brands through their take-back schemes. Garments were donated to H&M, Zara, C&A, Primark, Nike, The North Face, Uniqlo and M&S stores in Belgium, France, Germany and the UK, or posted them to a Boohoo scheme. Despite the slogans, three quarters of items (16 out of 21 or 76%) were either destroyed, left in warehouses or exported to Africa, where up to half of used clothing are quickly shredded for other uses or dumped. A pair of trousers donated to M&S were scrapped within a week. A pair of jogging trousers donated to C&A were burned in a cement kiln. A skirt donated to H&M travelled 24,800 kilometres from London to waste ground in Mali, where it appears to be dumped. Three items ended up in Ukraine, where import rules have been relaxed due to the war. Only 5 items, around a quarter of the original 21, were reused in Europe or ended up in a resale shop. Full report English Executive summary French German Trashion: The stealth export of waste plastic clothes to Kenya February 2023 The amount of second-hand clothing flowing to Kenya from global sources has grown significantly in recent years, a torrent that amounts to 17 items of clothing every year for each Kenyan, up to 8 of which are waste from the start. The system of used-clothing trade is currently at breaking point, with over 900 million items sent to Kenya from around the globe in 2021. Out of these, nearly 150 million items came from the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK). Of the 112 million items of used clothing shipped directly from the EU to Kenya each year, up to one in three contain plastic and are of such a low quality that they are immediately dumped in the environment or burned. This toxic influx is creating devastating consequences for the environment and communities. Currently, over two-thirds (69%) of textiles are made from plastic, and this is expected to grow to 73% by 2030. The implementation of the EU textile strategy is an important leverage to put the textile industry on a more circular trajectory and also to hold brands and retailers accountable for their textile waste. The upcoming revision of the Waste Framework Directive should introduce a well-designed Extended Producer Responsibility with mandatory eco-design requirements, which will hold fashion companies accountable for the end-of-life of the products they put on the market. In addition, governments must regulate the proliferation of cheap plastic fibres, which is a key driver of the fast fashion industry, through a virgin plastic tax. This will ensure that those who profit from cheap fast fashion also bear the cost of managing its waste. Full report English Watch the documentary Watch on YouTube Executive summary English Swahili French Synthetics Anonymous 2.0: Fashion’s persistent plastic problem

Synthetics Anonymous 2.0: Fashion’s persistent plastic problem

Synthetics Anonymous 2.0 uncovers the lack of progress that has been made by the fashion industry to kick its synthetics addiction.

Dec 2022 Report
Licence to Greenwash: How certification schemes and voluntary initiatives are fuelling fossil fashion 4

Licence to Greenwash: How certification schemes and voluntary initiatives are fuelling fossil fashion

This report provides an in-depth investigation into 10 major certifications, labels and voluntary industry initiatives in the fashion sector. It finds that the majority of these schemes are acting as sustain...

Mar 2022 Report
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