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According to the 2017 report Valuing Our Clothes: the Cost of UK Fashion, they state that in 2017 in the United Kingdom, there were 3.6 billion of unwearable items of clothing in the closets.

According to data from APA – Portuguese Environment Agency (recently released by DN), in 2017 around 200 756 tonsof textile waste in urban waste containers, which represents around 4% of the total waste produced in Portugal (close to 4.75 million).

It is estimated that by 2030, the total level of clothing waste could reach 148 million tons, equivalent to the annual waste of 17.5 kg per person across the planet.

In Portugal, around 40% of plastic waste is still placed in landfills. The country produces and imports large quantities of packaging, with a low recycling rate and a high amount accumulated in the environment. At a global level, plastic production reaches345 million tons per year, with Europe being the second largest producer with 64.4 million tonnes in 2017. The report highlights the problem of single-use plastic packaging, which takes hundreds of years to decompose, with unknown effects on human health. Pollution in the oceans has been increasing, which  makes it considered a threat, as there are studies that prove this and  each year around 8 million tons of plastic are dumped into the oceans. In Portugal, plastics are the largest source of waste in the environment, whether as microplastics or macroplastics found on beaches and ingested by marine animals.

Textile consumption in the EU is a factor that has the fourth largest impact on the environment and climate change. It is worse than food production and housing construction.