On 9 October 2026 Hans Nauta described in Trouw a visit by the Dutch environmental and transport inspectorate to recycling company Frankenhuis in Almelo. Since the summer, large brands and retailers may no longer destroy new clothing, accessories and shoes that were never sold or worn. The plant is finding that the rule arrives at the recycler as well.
This news item is a reading of that article. It is not legal advice. The piece in Trouw: Het vernietigingsverbod voor onverkocht textiel raakt ook de recyclingfabriek.
Two bales of new clothes in a load of waste
Frankenhuis, Trouw reports, turns 800,000 kilograms of textile into fibre every month. Director Bertram Wevers tells the inspectors about a truck of workwear, delivered as waste, that also held two bales of brand-new clothing. May he destroy them? Must he call the customer? Can he be fined if he processes them? Where does his responsibility start, and where does it stop?
Inspector Brigit van Daelen sets out the exceptions in the piece. Confidential destruction, such as old uniforms of the prison service, or delivery jackets that must not end up with people who would misuse them. Counterfeits that customs orders destroyed. Products that are badly damaged. And clothing that a charity has refused for donation or reuse. Only then may it be destroyed. Under this law, she says, recycling counts as destruction unless the fibres are made into new textile.
The duty sits with the brand and the shop
In recent weeks the inspectorate spoke with large brands. Nine out of ten say they never have clothing destroyed. After the sales, a lot may go to a chain that buys leftovers, such as TK Maxx. The inspectorate wants to know where those chains’ leftovers go next.
Luxury brands do not want unsold clothes to surface somewhere else. Trouw cites the image of a child soldier in a Mercedes overall, logo visible. Those brands often take unsold products back to head office. What happens after that is unclear.
Wevers supports the ban. Materials and the environment deserve more care, he says. At the same time a product remains for which there is no demand. Recycling, in his account, works on thin margins, and he asks the government to require demand for recycled material as well. The inspectors take that remark back to the ministry. Frankenhuis is part of the Boer Group.
The legal duty sits with brands and retailers. They may not instruct the recycler to destroy unsold textile unless a valid exception applies. When in doubt, the plant asks for written confirmation. The inspectorate can come back and ask for the records.
For a brand the practical question is therefore: where does an unsold lot go, and can you show it? Shredding it into fibre for a car or a beanbag does not, on this reading, count as a new textile loop.