Researchers expose environmental and social costs of global secondhand clothing trade

The Network for Education and Research on Peace and Sustainability (NERPS) convened its 42nd webinar under the title "Textile Terrains" to examine the environmental and social impacts of the global secondhand clothing trade. The event is described in one source as having taken place on Feb 26, 2026, while the NERPS event listing shows March 23, 2026 at 9:30-10:30 JST, creating an unresolved scheduling discrepancy that complicates verification of speakers and evidence presented.

Presenters were described broadly as "academic and practitioner speakers" who examined cross-border flows, tensions between circularity narratives and real-world externalities, and place-based impacts; one original summary truncates that last phrase as "place-b." NERPS' extended event title on its listing frames the program as being "for Peace , Justice and Sustainability," and promotional social media copy states that "Textile Terrains explores the hidden environmental and social impacts of fashion overconsumption and the global second-hand clothing trade."

Contextual materials from Textile Exchange supplement the NERPS framing with U.S.-focused programming and programmatic language. Textile Exchange lists a four-part webinar series that includes Webinar #1: The Cost and Environmental Impact of U.S. Textile and Apparel Waste; Webinar #2: How U.S. Textile Recovery Works and Emerging Innovation in Sortation Technologies; Webinar #3: State and Municipal Views on Textile Waste in the U.S.; and Webinar #4: A Rising Tide of Apparel and Textile Waste - What Brands are Doing and is it Enough? Textile Exchange also states "Who is Textile Exchange? We INSPIRE and EQUIP people to accelerate sustainable practices in the textile value chain" and outlines "ELEMENTS OF A SUSTAINABLE RECOVERY SYSTEM" that cite low consumer willingness to pay for sustainable products, missing regulations/policy, brands focused on self-optimization, lack of consumer awareness, and short-termism of planning and budgeting cycles.

Names appearing in Textile Exchange material include Marisa Adler, Sr. Consultant at RRS, listed with an rPET Working Group, and Jay V. Bassett, Principal Advisor - SMM, USEPA Sustainable Materials Management; these individuals are present in the Textile Exchange files but are not explicitly tied to the NERPS "Textile Terrains" webinar in the sources provided. The original NERPS summary does not include a speaker list, bios, or direct quotes from participants, and several source fragments are truncated, for example the original line that ends "place-b" and Textile Exchange text that ends "...can: Be concentrated in a single stage of the life."

Practical details on the NERPS event page underscore access controls: the listing prompts users to "Enter your email Address" and notes "You must be logged in to post a comment." Those interface prompts, combined with the conflicting Feb 26 and March 23 dates and the absence of an on-page speaker roster or recording link, leave important evidentiary gaps. To assess claims about cross-border trade volumes, environmental externalities, and specific place-based harms, NERPS will need to publish a verified date, speaker names and affiliations, and the webinar recording or slides so the data underpinning the discussion can be scrutinized.

"Textile Terrains" raises questions that mirror Textile Exchange's programmatic agenda: how to find economically viable solutions to reduce textile and apparel waste, why some cities outperform others, and what is needed to scale reuse and recycling strategies. With the NERPS event positioned as the 42nd webinar on an organization focused on peace and sustainability, resolving the date discrepancy and releasing full presentations is the next concrete step required for researchers, policymakers, and brands to move beyond rhetoric to measurable action.