“In Romania we have a lot of textiles, and we use a lot of textiles and there is a need to find solutions for textile waste. Our association was founded three years ago and we are representing companies with over 50 million euros turnover, more than 1000 employees and over 7000 tonnes of separately collected textile waste in Romania in 2024.

The circular textile economy is about reuse. We are all wearing clothes and we should think about what we will do with those clothes after we don’t like it anymore.

In Romania, current collection rates for textile are low, with 0.5-0.7 kg/ capita, compared to Western Europe (6-12 kg/capita). We have a lot of room to grow. From January 2025, EU-wide separate textile collection is mandatory,” Zoltan Gundisch, President, Romanian Association for Textile Reuse and Recycling (ARETEX) said at “Circular Textiles – Less Waste, More Future” conference.

“The European second-hand market is expected to grow at 8.5 percent per year, reaching around 26 billion euros by 2030, with the Romanian market expected to have similar growth.

In Romania we have a lot of expertise in companies which are doing reuse for many years. We have a significant second-hand retail sector. Manual operating costs are lower than in Western European countries, offering a competitive advantage.

Romanian textile street collection is containing only around 25-40 percent reusable textiles. It’s a reality that textile collections can contain 5-10 percent of other items (non-textiles: shoes, handbags, toys or other items).

Clear “end of waste” definition is essential to prevent illegal waste imports disguised as second-hand goods. Industrial textile waste generated in Romania is mostly not sorted for recycling.

In Romania we have no clear legal framework for contracts regarding textile management between the key stakeholders: municipalities, waste management associations, intercommunity development associations (ADI) and specialized collecting and sorting for reuse companies.

Without investment in proper infrastructure (clean containers, specialized transport, sorting capacities), collected textiles risk contamination, rendering them unusable.

Romania should focus on reuse initiatives and leverage existing strengths for post-consumer textile waste. Aretex’s goal is to establish a national working group with authorities, industry experts and the private sector.”