Cities are where the textile waste challenge is most visible, and where solutions can scale. Drawing on findings from SOLSTICE, Circular Berlin’s position paper shows how Berlin can make reuse and repair part of its core urban infrastructure. It sets out concrete policy recommendations for building reuse infrastructure, supporting repair businesses and making reuse part of everyday life.
Overview
The negative impacts of the rapidly growing textile industry are increasingly affecting urban areas such as Berlin. The excessive consumption of cheap ultra-fast fashion is leading to rising volumes of textile waste, placing a strain on local waste disposal and collection systems, and making it more difficult to achieve climate and resource conservation targets. Berlin generates over 18 kg of used textiles per person each year. The estimated climate impact of Berlin’s used textile waste streams amounts to around 605,000 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent per year, which corresponds to approximately 4% of the city’s total CO₂ emissions. At the same time, local repair and reuse networks are under increasing economic pressure. Existing collection, sorting and reuse systems are reaching their limits, whilst large quantities of wearable clothing are being disposed of prematurely.
Reducing textile waste and strengthening reuse and repair schemes are not only relevant in terms of resource policy, but are also crucial for achieving binding climate and circular economy targets at state, federal and EU level. These include, in particular, Berlin’s target of climate neutrality by 2045, Germany’s National Circular Economy Strategy, and the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles. With the introduction of new regulatory instruments such as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and the EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), a crucial window of opportunity is now opening to structurally integrate reuse and repair into local climate, waste and economic policy.
The results clearly show:
clothing that is still wearable is being disposed of prematurely on a large scale,
existing reuse and collection schemes are insufficient,
repair businesses are operating under considerable economic pressure,
at the same time, there is significant public interest in local and accessible reuse schemes.
Circular Berlin therefore recommends three key policy areas:
Establish a reuse infrastructure as part of local authority climate and circular economy policy
Create fair economic conditions for repair businesses
Strengthen reuse as a social practice and part of everyday urban culture.
Reuse and repair are not niche solutions, but key levers for climate protection, resource conservation, local value creation and social participation. For the textile transformation to succeed, we now need a policy framework that systematically strengthens reuse and repair and establishes them as part of resilient urban infrastructure.
