photo of women wearing uniforms sitting in endless rows as they sew yellow puffer jackets
Women workers at a textile factory in Viet Nam stitch puffer jackets, destined mostly for Western markets.
Photo:ILO Asia-Pacific

World Cleanup Day 2025: Textile and fashion waste

Every second, a garbage truck full of clothes is dumped in a landfill or burned. The fashion industry generates 92 million tonnes of textile waste each year, overwhelming waste systems, polluting waterways, and fuelling the climate crisis.

On 20 September 2025, people around the world unite for World Cleanup Day – a global movement that goes beyond picking up trash to confront the waste crisis head-on. This year's focus is on textile and fashion waste, one of the most visible and fast-growing environmental challenges.

Message of UN-Habitat Executive Director Anacláudia Rossbach on World Cleanup Day

Every year, tens of millions of tonnes of unwanted clothes and fabrics end up in our cities – piling up in landfills, clogging drains, and polluting our neighbourhoods.

This World Cleanup Day, we are focusing on one of the fastest-growing waste problems: textile and fashion waste. Today, we are coming together to reclaim our streets, our waterways, and our coastlines from waste.

At UN-Habitat, through our Waste Wise Cities programme and the African Clean Cities Platform, we are working with local governments to improve waste collection, promote reuse of materials, and turn waste recycling into jobs across cities.

World Cleanup Day events and other information available on UN Habitat's website

Background

On 8 December 2023, the United Nations General Assembly, in its seventy-eighth session, unanimously adopted resolution 78/122 “World Cleanup Day”, which proclaims 20 September as World Cleanup Day. The resolution invites all Member States, organizations of the United Nations system, other international and regional organizations, and other relevant stakeholders – including civil society, the private sector and academia – to observe World Cleanup Day through activities aimed at raising awareness of the role clean-up efforts play in sustainable development. The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) facilitates the observance of the Day.

Over the years, many national, regional and local governments and communities have been undertaking clean-up activities globally. World Cleanup Day represents the reflection on their achievements. The clean-ups serve as a reminder of the collective responsibility we share in preserving and maintaining a clean and healthy environment as well as sustainable waste and resources management.

Get involved

Join the conversation: Use hashtags #WorldCleanupDay and #LeaveNoWasteBehind to spread awareness.

World Cleanup Day events and other information available on UN Habitat's website

Did you know?

  • Municipal solid waste generation is predicted to grow from 2.1 billion tonnes in 2023 to 3.8 billion tonnes by 2050. (UNEP/Global Waste Management Outlook 2024) 
  • Without urgent action on waste management, by 2050 the global direct cost of waste management could almost double to a staggering USD 640.3 billion. (UNEP/Global Waste Management Outlook 2024) 
  • More than two billion people lack access to waste collection, more than three billion to controlled waste recovery or disposal facilities. (UNDP)
 

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Related observances

report cover showing an illustration starting with an ape and ending with a person loadereport cover showing an illustration starting with an ape and ending with a person loaded with garbage on their head, punctuated with a qued with garbage on their head

A new United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report urges the world to move beyond a 'waste era' and turn rubbish into resource. With municipal waste set to rise by two thirds and its costs to almost double within a generation, only a drastic reduction in waste generation will secure a livable and affordable future. Titled "Beyond an age of waste: Turning rubbish into a resource," the UNEP Global Waste Management Outlook 2024 (GWMO 2024) provides the most substantial update on global waste generation and the cost of waste and its management since 2018.

Press release
UNEP Global Waste Management Outlook 2024

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Solid waste management affects every single person in the world, whether individuals are managing their own waste or governments are providing waste management services to their citizens. As nations and cities urbanize, develop economically, and grow in terms of population, the World Bank estimates that waste generation will increase from 2.01 billion tonnes in 2016 to 3.40 billion tonnes in 2050. At least 33% of this waste is mismanaged globally today through open dumping or burning.

"What a Waste 2.0: A Global Snapshot of Solid Waste Management to 2050" includes global, regional, and urban trends on solid waste management from technical and operational trends to environmental and social impacts.

In depth materials at the World Bank datatopics website

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International days and weeks are occasions to educate the public on issues of concern, to mobilize political will and resources to address global problems, and to celebrate and reinforce achievements of humanity. The existence of international days predates the establishment of the United Nations, but the UN has embraced them as a powerful advocacy tool. We also mark other UN observances.