A German television investigation is putting renewed scrutiny on what happens to the share of secondhand clothing that doesn’t sell on resale platforms—and whether “donated or recycled” circularity promises are actually aligned with reality.
Evidence, aired on March 4 by regional public broadcaster Südwestrundfunk, suggests not.
According to an investigation by the SWR’s investigative research unit, items returned to Sellby, a Stockholm-based secondhand platform majority owned by the H&M Group, that don’t sell on the platform can end up in Chilean dumping sites.
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“While the global textile supply chain is inherently complex, we are committed to improving transparency and working closely with our partners to strengthen the oversight,” a Sellpy spokesperson told Sourcing Journal. “Sellpy takes the findings of the report very seriously and has been in a dialogue with its partners to ensure that our strict routines are being followed and textiles unsellable via the Sellpy platform are being handled responsibly.”
The spokesperson said that the majority-H&M Group-owned platform works with Looper Textile Co. and Textoras, a Lithuania-based reverse logistics and recommerce technology provider of “stock-exit solutions” for online retailers with excess inventory.
The former, Looper Textile, is the Stockholm-based joint venture founded by H&M Group and Remondis in 2023, to extend the use of about 40 million garments in its inaugural year alone.
“We work with these partners for items deemed non sellable during our initial sorting (e.g. due to condition),” the Sellpy spokesperson told SJ. “They operate on a global scale to match garments with market demand. The majority of items are sorted for reuse mostly in global markets, followed by recycling.”
The investigators placed tracking devices in 12 garments and followed them for 18 months after the items were sent into Sellpy’s system. SWR alleges that the tracked garments moved through multiple countries and that some ultimately appeared in locations not disclosed on the platform’s website—raising questions about the transparency of downstream handling for items that aren’t resold.
H&M Group said it “firmly believes” that clothing “should never end up in nature” and is “humble to the fact that our industry” is still facing such challenges.
“Addressing textile waste requires collective action across brands, policymakers, waste‑management actors and affected communities,” a spokesperson for H&M told SJ. “We remain committed to contributing transparently and constructively to this work.”
