The production of textile fibers has almost doubled worldwide in recent years, putting this industry among those that have the greatest impact on the environment. According to the European Environment Agency, only 1% of used clothing is recycled into new clothing.
Given this situation, how are institutions preparing the path towards sustainable fashion? Just like in the rest of Spain, local councils on Ibiza will have to implement the selective collection of textile waste by 2025. To do this, they will have to install special containers for this purpose in the streets and thus comply with the Waste Law for a Circular Economy, which aims to improve the management of one of the most polluting industries on the planet.

This is good news for the work carried out by the Deixalles Foundation and Retexsol (Solidarity Textile Recycling) from Cáritas Ibiza, whose work focuses on creating insertion jobs through the collection of textile waste, preventing some of it from ending up in the island’s landfill.
Retexsol collects about 370 tons of clothing every year in the 122 containers it has on Ibiza and Formentera. This amount is “impossible to manage here”, according to its manager, Francisco Cabrera, so it is sent to the Cáritas cooperative, Moda re-, in Barcelona. There it is classified according to quality or recycling criteria and then sent to its stores throughout Spain (the store in Ibiza is located on Aragón Street), or delivered to people in vulnerable situations.


Garments that cannot be reused are recycled or converted into fiber for factories, although there is a small percentage “that is so worn that it is incinerated,” adds Cabrera, who acknowledges that they now know the journey that recycled clothing takes, but that years ago they sold clothes on to wholesalers and were unaware of where they ended up.
For its part, the Deixalles Foundation has 37 containers on the island and collects between 35 and 45 tons per year. They also receive another 15 tons directly at their warehouse at the Montecristo Industrial Estate.


The technician from the environmental area, Joan Carles Palerm, explains that a part is selected by social integration workers and is sold in the Deixalles store: “We managed to get 20 to 22 tons of clothes that other people wear from that material.” If “unusable” garments are found in that selection, they are sent to landfill. The rest are sent “to companies in the sector” on the peninsula, which separate them by quality or fabric for recycling.



Despite the work of the two organizations, only “13% of the clothes thrown away in Ibiza are collected while the rest goes to landfill”, says Cabrera. Therefore, it is expected that the new Waste Law will represent a real change in the collection of textile waste on the island.