FACTORY SECONDS AND SURPLUS
How Fashion Brands Can Route Unsold Clothing to Reuse and Recovery
This guide is for brands, manufacturers and exporters deciding what to do with clothing that will not sell through their usual channels.
It is written from the brand’s side. Buyers looking for surplus stock should start with sourcing brand surplus and deadstock.
THE PRINCIPLE
Reuse first, where garments are suitable.
The EU Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC, Article 4) sets a priority order, as the European Commission’s guidance on the directive explains: prevention, preparing for re-use, recycling, other recovery such as energy recovery, and disposal. Member States may depart from it for specific waste streams where life-cycle thinking justifies it. It is EU law, but it is a useful order for any brand to work through.
- A wearable garment usually keeps more value as clothing than as fibre.
- Recycling suits goods that cannot be worn or safely resold; it is not a default for everything.
- Disposal is the last option, for goods that are unsafe or cannot be recovered.
- The best prevention is upstream: use what is left over to plan smaller or better-matched production.
TRIAGE THE STOCK
Sort before you decide.
First quality, still current
Markdowns, transfers between stores or channels, or holding for a later season.
First quality, past season
Outlets, off-price channels or bulk buyers, under conditions you set.
Seconds and minor faults
Repair where it pays; otherwise release as seconds with the faults disclosed. Buyers will check lots as in inspecting minor-defect lots.
Customer returns
Inspect each piece: resell, refurbish or route with the seconds.
Unsafe or unwearable
Goods that fail safety checks or cannot be worn: recycling where possible, otherwise disposal under the rules that apply to you.
CHOOSING PARTNERS
What to check.
Their channel
Where and how they will sell or donate the goods, and whether that fits your conditions.
Conditions
Requirements on labels, territories or channels, written into the agreement.
Traceability
Records of quantities handed over and where they go next.
Capability
For recyclers: which materials they can process, and what happens to what they cannot.
PROTECT THE BRAND
Release stock without losing track of it.
Clear conditions help legitimate buyers as well as the brand.
- Decide whether goods leave with labels intact, cut, marked or removed.
- Set permitted channels and territories in writing.
- Tell buyers how the goods may be described; careful buyers will ask, as in verifying branded surplus.
- Keep invoices for every release, so legitimate stock can be told apart from leaked or counterfeit goods.
RECORD AND REPORT
Know what happened to every unit.
Some markets require it. Under the EU ecodesign regulation, companies within its scope that rely on an exception to the ban on destroying unsold clothing and footwear must keep records and publish annual reports on what they discarded; France’s AGEC law requires unsold new non-food products to be reused, donated or recycled, with limited exceptions.
- Record quantities by route: sold, donated, recycled and disposed of.
- Record the reason for any disposal.
- If you sell in the EU or France, check which current rules apply to your business.
- In India, we did not find a rule specific to unsold apparel as of October 2026; check current requirements with the relevant authorities or an adviser.
SOURCES
Where these facts come from.
We read the pages below in October 2026, except the full text of the EU regulation on EUR-Lex, which is listed for reference: the summary of that regulation here follows the European Commission’s announcement. Laws and company policies change; check the current versions before relying on them.
- European Commission: Guidelines on the interpretation of key provisions of Directive 2008/98/EC on waste, section 3.1 (not legally binding)
- European Commission: Waste Framework Directive and the waste hierarchy
- European Commission: ban on destruction of unsold clothes and shoes enters into application (17 July 2026)
- Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 on ecodesign for sustainable products, full text for reference (EUR-Lex)
- Loi n° 2020-105 du 10 février 2020 relative à la lutte contre le gaspillage et à l’économie circulaire, Article 35 (Légifrance)
NEXT STEP
A question for Balematrix?
Balematrix handles wholesale enquiries from buyers of clothing and textile bales. For any other question, use our contact form.
General guidance, not legal advice. Waste, product and trademark rules vary by market and change; check the current requirements that apply to your business.