New Law 2025: Dispose of old clothes correctly - that's how it works!

New Law 2025: Dispose of old clothes correctly - that's how it works!

From January 1, 2025, a new law comes into force, which prescribes the separation collection of old textiles for all households in Germany. This regulation has been introduced to promote the recycling and recycling of textiles, which have so far often ended up in residual waste. According to a study, most waste disposal companies burn the thrown away clothing instead of recycling them, which loses valuable raw materials. Waste consultant Claudia Knopp from the Erben-pregnant recycling and waste disposal company (EVA) emphasizes that it is particularly important not to throw dirty or damaged clothing into the old clothing containers, since these can affect the quality of the textiles collected, as well as the report from merkur.de explained.

What is changing for consumers?

The new EU directive aims to improve the recycling of old textiles, since only about 1% of the clothing is currently recycled. The rest usually comes to an end in the combustion. However, the regulation does not mean that consumers will be punished in the future if they dispose of old, removed clothing in the residual waste - this is still possible, but not recommended, because what ends up in the trash is not recycled. The public sector, i.e. the disposal companies, are now obliged to introduce reliable systems for separate collection of old textiles. This is already committed to numerous companies, including the Berlin city cleaning companies (BSR), as is listed in an article by rbb24.de

summarized, the upcoming law strengthens the focus on sustainable disposal and recycling of textiles, while at the same time it relocates responsibility primarily to waste disposal companies. In addition, it is significantly pointed out that high -quality old textiles should not be separated from the old clothing container by dirty or damaged clothing in order to maximize value creation from reuse.