THE FASHION TECH BRIEFING
Fashion’s End of Life: Where Do Our Clothes End Up?
Technologies for a Second Life
Newsletter #31 | Read time • 4 mins
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Waste overlooking Kantamanto Market. Photo: Revival
I saw the below video this week.
It was both upsetting and shocking to see the images of clothing on the beaches of Accra, Ghana.
Each week, 15 million garments arrive at the Kantamanto market, with the hope that they can be resold. However, 40% of these items fail to make the cut. These discarded garments are then left as waste, and the issue is how to dispose of them. Accra lacks the infrastructure to manage the vast number of garments that have reached the end of their life cycle. Many end up being washed down the river and onto the beach, with heavier items such as jackets and coats sinking to the bottom, contributing to ocean pollution and impacting marine life. 35% of marine plastics can be traced to textiles. And this is not just happening in Accra.
Video: The Or Foundation
So, what can we do?
There are emerging technologies that offer hope. These technologies tackle different aspects of the problem and show that with collective will and bold innovation, there is a genuine opportunity for a second life for every garment.
Let’s first examine the end-of-life value chain.
You can break down the end-of-life value chain in Fashion into 4 areas: collecting, sorting, reusing and recycling. This value chain is not linear nor does it produce a sustainable outcome in a lot of instances. A garment might go through multiple phases before being reused or eventually recycled. A staggering 87% of fibre in clothing garments is not recycled – it goes to landfill or it’s incinerated.
Challenges exist across these areas linked to the manual nature of these reverse logistics – collection lacks economic incentives to achieve high adoption rates with shopper. It’s a highly manual and costly process to undertake a take back scheme. Sorting, and the processing of clothing for resale, rental and repair suffers from a similar challenge. The multi-fibre composite nature of our clothing further complicates sorting and makes blended fabrics not easily recyclable and separated into reusable fabrics for future garments.
Now, let’s explore some solutions.
Digital Passports, AI trends prediction & AI Sizing
The first place to start is upstream at the entry point to the value chain. 3 technologies are emerging here. Digital product passports, AI trend analysis and AI powered sizing. Imagine being able to scan a QR code or tap a tag on your clothing to see its entire history—what it’s made of, where it was produced, and how to recycle it. Digital IDs and product passports provided by companies such as Laybl and EON provide this information, with the possibility to embed directly into garments, enhancing traceability and streamlining recycling processes. Blockchain adds a further level of security and reassurance to these passports. Technologies further upstream are also available to tackle the root causes of unsold inventory and returns. AI trend predictions such as Heuritech can now provide better forecasting, and prediction whilst AI sizing is now tackling the age-old problem of fit that has blighted fashion since the introduction of size charts and standard sizing. By helping consumers find their perfect fit, AI sizing solutions prevent unnecessary purchases, wasteful returns or garments being underutilised and ultimately disposed of. Collectively the promise of these solutions is to affect the production and first consumption of clothing upstream.
Worn Again Process & Role in Recycling: Using an automated sorting machine, Polyester and Cotton materials can be separated. Finally, the pre-processing step will remove disrupters (such as buttons or zippers) and downsize the material to Worn Again’s requirement.
AI Sorting, Listing & Chemical Recycling Solutions
Encouraging the resale of garments is one of the most impactful ways to extend an item’s lifecycle and reduce waste once it’s had use.
Preloved and resale platforms, supported by cutting-edge tech, are creating vibrant secondary markets for fashion. AI-driven tools help assess garment quality, price items, and connect buyers with sellers.
However, a significant challenge remains: sorting, classifying, and listing textiles manually is slow, labour-intensive, and prone to errors. AI-powered systems are ready to change this. Imagine being able to sort, digitise, and automate listings—just by taking a photo. These tools create descriptions, tags, and sort items for resellers or recommerce providers. At Aistetic, we aim to help with our AI Listings solution.
If the garment cannot be resold, we need to find ways to recycle it. Traditional recycling struggles to handle blended fabrics—think polyester-cotton mixes. Enter chemical recycling. Companies like Worn Again are leading the way with processes that break down fibres into reusable raw materials. Using special chemicals Worn Again cleans, extracts, separates, and regenerates virgin quality polyester and cellulose. At scale, this eliminates fossil fuel extraction and the destruction of natural resources.
Ways Forward
The question “Where do our clothes end up?” doesn’t have to end in landfills. We can change this. The adoption of these technologies can make a difference. They offer bold innovation, but they need collective will to succeed. This is key.
At Aistetic, we want to help. Whether through our solutions—AI Sizing, AI Listing—our preloved partners, or by supporting circular design principles, we are committed to contributing to the solution.
The path forward requires bold collaboration and investment in innovation. With the right tools and mindset, we can prevent the mountains of textile waste from growing and we can turn the tide – we can create a future where every garment has the opportunity to find a second life.
Let’s make fashion’s end of life the start of a new beginning.
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PS. When you are ready to dive into some AI-powered fashion tech, please do check out our AI Sizing, AI Listing and reach out for a chat. We offer a 1 month free trial for our AI Sizing Solution.
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