Textile collection containers don’t just help those in need. Some of the companies operating them are financially connected to second-hand shop chains where the clothing ends up. T-shirts, sweatshirts, and pants often don’t go to charities but back into circulation – this time for a fee. This allows operators to cover collection and sorting costs, or even generate profit.
Czech households produce up to 120,000 tons of textile waste annually. Until recently, most ended up in landfills and incinerators. Since January of this year, municipalities in the European Union must ensure textile collection and enable its further processing.The containers are operated by about a dozen organizations – from charitable to private companies. While some pass clothing to those in need and recycle the rest, others trade with it.
One example is TextilEco, which operates the most containers in the Czech Republic – over 6,200 according to available data. Part of the clothing from them goes to the Genesis second-hand chain, which has several dozen locations in prestigious addresses in the centers of Prague and Brno.The TextilEco company that collects and sorts clothes, the Genesis stores, and their e-shop are all owned by the family of entrepreneur Anna Smolíčková, according to the commercial register.
How much clothing ends up in second-hand shops versus charity remains unclear, as the company refuses to disclose this information, calling it a trade secret.While the company mentions on its website that part of the textile goes to second-hand stores, there’s no indication of this on the containers themselves.”Container operators often exaggerate and emphasize information that it’s a charitable project and the textiles go to those in need,” noted Helena Továrková, director of the Veronica Foundation focused on environmental protection. “But the reality is different. Only a very small part of clothing and footwear is used for people in need or for social purposes.”
The financial picture of TextilEco and its connected second-hand shops is murky – the company hasn’t published financial statements for the past two years.The last published statement indicates that in 2022, TextilEco had a net profit of 22.6 million crowns.The Sova Foundation, which TextilEco supports, has contributed three million crowns to various charitable projects over its eleven-year existence.
Adding controversy to the story, the foundation was established by Roman Řehořek, who also chairs the supervisory board of TextilEco. Ten years ago, he and his partner Aleš Peka were sentenced by the Regional Court in Hradec Králové to six years in prison for fraud, though they were later acquitted after four years, with the court ruling that what they did was not a criminal offense.