Textile destruction and fabric recycling

What is textile destruction?

Textile destruction is the controlled withdrawal of unsellable garments, fabric, home textiles and accessories from the market and their destruction or recycling at a licensed facility. Defective, end-of-season, outdated or returned products, and items that must not reach the second-hand market because they carry a brand logo, all fall within this scope. Scrap runs the textile disposal process in line with the Waste Management Regulation and documents every step from collection to the destruction minutes.

Uncontrolled disposal, meaning the product is discarded like ordinary waste, creates two risks: labeled products leak into the market and create a counterfeit perception, and because the destruction is undocumented, the tax treatment of the written-off stock cannot be defended. We explain how this risk arises in our article on uncontrolled disposal.

Which textile products are destroyed?

• Defective products and failed quality checks: ready-to-wear with production faults, second-quality fabric rolls, cutting waste.
• End-of-season and outdated stock: products whose sales ended with a collection change and that occupy warehouse space.
• Labeled and logoed products: garments and accessories that require brand protection and must not reach the second-hand market; corporate uniforms.
• Fabric and fiber stock: material sorted by synthetic and natural fiber content and routed to recycling.
• Home textiles: unsellable towels, bedding, curtains and similar groups.
• Textiles with hygiene risk or contamination: batches unsuitable for recycling that require safe disposal.
• Returned and cancelled export batches: collections shipped abroad and sent back, or rejected by the buyer.

Textile destruction methods

The method depends on the product type and its recovery potential. The aim is first to return material to the economy, and to dispose of what cannot be recovered without harming the environment.

Which batch goes which way is decided at the survey and assessment stage based on product type, material content and risk; the outcome is written item by item in the destruction minutes.

Legal basis of textile destruction

Textile destruction touches two areas of legislation at once: environment and tax.

• Environment: the Waste Management Regulation requires waste to be transported and disposed of traceably from the producer to a licensed facility. Destruction takes place only at facilities licensed by the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change; transport is in sealed vehicles.
• Tax: Article 278 of the Tax Procedure Law provides that the value of goods whose worth has fallen significantly is set by the Valuation Commission; Article 278/A opens a separate route for goods that must be destroyed. The commission’s assessment and the destruction minutes are the basis for expensing the stock cost.
• VAT: Article 30/c of the VAT Law governs VAT on lost goods. For destroyed goods, the tax office and the Council of State hold different views; the route is chosen with your accountant once the documents are in hand. Details: VAT on destroyed goods.
• EU: from 19 July 2026 the destruction of unsold clothing and footwear is banned in the EU (Ecodesign Regulation ESPR, Article 25). The ban mostly reaches Turkish suppliers through their EU buyers; returned batches are handled in Türkiye through documented destruction or recycling. Details: the EU destruction ban.

Destruction minutes and reporting

The destruction minutes are the official record of which product was destroyed, in what quantity, on what date and by which method. At Scrap the minutes come as part of a document set:

• the Valuation Commission’s assessment and a copy of its decision,
• the licensed facility’s destruction and recovery records,
• photo and video records of every batch,
• steps tracked throughout on the Online Tracking System,
• the Sustainable Transformation Report: recovery and carbon data that feed directly into your ESG and corporate sustainability reporting.

This set answers the question “was the product really destroyed?” with a single file, both in a tax audit and in brand compliance reviews.

Destruction or recycling?

They are not alternatives but two outputs of the same process. A labeled product is first shredded so it cannot be recognized, then routed to recycling by fiber content; brand protection and environmental gain are achieved at the same time. The part unsuitable for recycling is disposed of through energy recovery. On the tax side the result is the same: both outputs are tied to the Valuation Commission’s assessment and the minutes. We describe what happens to surplus clothing in this article.

How textile destruction works with Scrap

The process starts with the request form; products are analyzed by fabric type and risk and a proposal is prepared. Official applications and the Valuation Commission assessment are handled by us. Products are moved in sealed vehicles to a licensed facility; recoverable material is separated and the rest is shredded and disposed of through energy recovery. Typical duration is about 21 business days. At the end you receive the minutes, photo and video records and the Sustainable Transformation Report; for every textile destruction project a tree is planted and a child joins a nature education programme.