So, in practice, it makes no difference whether worn-out clothes are tossed into household waste at home or taken to a waste station in compliance with the law, Delfi reports.

Waste handlers are permitted to temporarily store textile waste that cannot be processed or recycled due to the lack of technological solutions until a way emerges to handle it either in Estonia or abroad. However, such opportunities are rare, meaning that separately collected textiles are ultimately, figuratively speaking, dumped back in with mixed municipal waste and sent for incineration.

Eesti Keskkonnateenused AS, which handles the majority of Estonia's waste management, does not recommend that its clients bring textile waste separately to waste stations, since the material ends up mixed with household waste anyway.

According to Bruno Tammaru, a member of the management board at Eesti Keskkonnateenused, handling textile waste is currently a challenge both in Estonia and in many other European countries. As a result, the company advises its clients to separate only wearable textiles that can be reused.

"Until there are effective recycling solutions for unusable textiles, it would be absurd to collect all textile waste separately only to end up sending it to landfills or incineration," Tammaru said, recommending instead that unusable textiles be placed in mixed municipal waste at home.

"Unusable textiles should still go into mixed household waste containers, so they can reach incineration in the most direct and cost-effective way — where at least they can be converted into heat and electricity," Tammaru added.

The Ministry of Climate also acknowledges that separately collected textile waste in Estonia often ends up being incinerated, even though the law technically prohibits this.

While Estonia currently lacks the capacity to process large volumes of unusable textiles, the ministry believes that separate collection remains a necessary step, as it establishes an initial flow of materials that makes it possible for companies to begin developing processing and recycling systems.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!