From January 1, 2022, the obligation to recycle textile waste came into force. Italy, with Legislative Decree 116/2020, brought forward by three years the provisions of the European Directive 2018/851, one of the four directives that make up the so-called "Circular Economy Package".
However, the Ministry of Ecological Transition has not established precisely the rules and objectives for this separate collection, and an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system has not yet been established for the textile sector.
One of the reasons why this type of intervention is necessary is that a substantial amount of textile waste that could be recovered is not intercepted by separate collection: in 2019, 5.7% of unsorted waste was composed of textile waste.
Furthermore, according to the Commission and the European Parliament, the sector is responsible for 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and European purchases of clothing and textiles in 2017 generated 654 kilograms of CO2 per person.
A widespread collection system must be implemented and there must be an upgrade of the recycling plants, as it is central to prevent the final destination of textile waste from being landfills or incinerators. Textile waste, in addition to being able to be reused in many cases in consumer cycles in Italy or on foreign markets, can be recycled through mechanical processes that fray them to make secondary raw materials, usable in industrial circuits.
It is for this series of reasons that the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) provides funding for the creation of "textile hubs". Specifically, Line D of Notice 1.2 provides for the financing of intervention proposals aimed at the modernization and expansion of existing plants, and at the construction of new recycling plants for the infrastructure of the collection of pre and post-consumer, and recycling plants of textile fractions in a systemic perspective – the so-called "textile hubs".
You can find the closest bin for the collection of used clothes on the webapp "Latuadifferenziata", in the section "Bins and collection centers" at the following link: https://www.latuadifferenziata.it/pwarfoweb/maps/0