Zara are estimated to produce around 500,000 metric tonnes (1.1 billion pounds) of packaging and operational waste in 2026, which works out to roughly 1,400 tonnes every day.
That figure is an estimate, and here is why. Zara do not publish their own waste. Their parent company Inditex reports it for all eight brands together, about 700,000 tonnes of packaging and site waste a year.
Zara make up around 72% of Inditex sales, so on the same basis roughly 500,000 tonnes of that waste is theirs. It counts the packaging Zara put on the market and the waste from their own stores, offices and warehouses.
Inditex report around 700,000 tonnes of packaging and operational waste a year across all their brands. That leaves out the 678,596 tonnes of raw material they turn into clothing, most of which becomes waste far from their own bins, and the supplier textile waste they do not count at all.
How much waste do Zara produce in a year
Zara's waste has grown as the business has grown. The table below estimates it year by year, back to 2022 and up to the 500,000 tonne figure for 2026.
| Year | Estimated Zara waste (metric tonnes) | Change on prior year |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 500,000 | held flat |
| 2025 | 500,000 | held flat |
| 2024 | 500,000 | +8% |
| 2023 | 465,000 | +11% |
| 2022 | 420,000 | baseline |
Note: The 2024 figure is Zara's roughly 72% share of the 698,682 tonnes of packaging and operational waste Inditex disclosed for the whole group. Earlier years are scaled by Inditex net sales, 32.6 billion euros in 2022, 35.9 billion in 2023 and 38.6 billion in 2024.
We hold 2025 and 2026 flat, as Inditex have not published newer waste figures. Years before 2022 are left out, because the covid drop in sales would distort the trend.
Behind that single number sit three streams. Inditex report their physical waste as packaging, store waste and site waste, which together came to 698,682 tonnes across the group in 2024.
| Waste stream (Inditex group) | Metric tonnes |
|---|---|
| Packaging placed on the market | 521,448 |
| Store waste (Inditex's own estimate) | 116,965 |
| HQ, logistics centres and factories | 60,269 |
| Total | 698,682 |
Note: From Inditex's 2024 sustainability report, covering all eight brands, not Zara alone. The store figure is Inditex's own estimate, as they say their store data is not yet detailed enough to measure.
Packaging is by far the biggest slice. The 521,448 tonnes Inditex placed on the market in 2024 is 84% paper and card, 16% plastic, and it is the packaging that travels out with products rather than the boxes thrown away at their own sites.
The direction of travel is mixed. Inditex have lifted the recycled content of their materials from 18% in 2023 to 33% in 2024, but the amount of raw material they consume keeps rising, from 645,623 tonnes to 678,596 tonnes in the same year.
Who are Zara
Zara are a Spanish clothing retailer, the largest fast-fashion brand in the world and the flagship of the Inditex group. Amancio Ortega opened the first Zara store in 1975 in A Coruña, in northern Spain.
The model Zara built there is the reason their footprint is so large. Rather than design a season months ahead, Zara turn new designs into shop-floor clothing in a few weeks.
They do it in small batches, restocked constantly, so there is always something new to buy. More newness means more product made and more thrown away.
A few figures show the scale behind the waste.
- Zara sales: 27.8 billion euros in the year to January 2025, about 72% of the Inditex group.
- Group sales: 38.6 billion euros across all eight brands.
- Stores: 5,563 Inditex stores worldwide.
- Markets: products sold in 214 markets.
- Online: 10.2 billion euros of Inditex online sales, up 12%.
- Staff: around 162,083 people across the group.
Why do Zara make so much waste
The size of the number comes from how Zara sell, not one single cause. Four things drive it.
- The fast-fashion model. Zara sell newness. Clothes are made to be bought, worn a few times and replaced by the next drop, so more is produced and more is thrown away than in a slower wardrobe.
- A mountain of raw material. Inditex turned 678,596 tonnes of raw material into clothing in 2024, up 5% on the year. That is the product itself, before any packaging is added.
- Packaging on everything. Every garment, box and online order carries packaging, which is why the 521,448 tonnes Inditex place on the market each year is their single largest waste stream.
- Hard-to-recycle fibres. More than a third of Inditex's fibres are synthetic. Less than 1% of clothing worldwide is recycled back into new clothing, so most garments end their life in landfill or an incinerator.
The last point is where the real footprint sits. The waste Inditex measure in their own bins is small next to the clothing they send into the world, and that clothing becomes someone else's waste problem downstream.
How much material goes into Zara's clothes
The clearest signal of Zara's scale is not their bins, it is the raw material they consume and the small share that comes back. Inditex report both, and the gap between them is wide.
| Measure (Inditex group) | 2023 | 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raw material turned into product (tonnes) | 645,623 | 678,596 | +5.1% |
| Garments collected for reuse or recycling (tonnes) | 20,259 | 19,484 | -3.8% |
| Recycled content of materials | 18% | 33% | +15 points |
Note: From Inditex's 2024 sustainability report, group-wide. The recycled-content jump is real progress, but the take-back total fell and stays tiny next to the 678,596 tonnes of new material going in.
Put plainly, the clothing Inditex collect back adds up to about 3% of the new material they use. Take-back helps at the margin, but it does not close the gap between what goes out and what comes home.
What is Zara's own waste made of
Inditex break down the 60,269 tonnes of waste from their sites, warehouses and factories by material. Cardboard and paper dominate.
| Material | Metric tonnes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Cardboard and paper | 38,413 | 64% |
| Plastic | 8,352 | 14% |
| Wood | 6,334 | 11% |
| Other non-hazardous | 5,800 | 10% |
| Textile | 1,054 | 2% |
| Metal | 261 | less than 1% |
| Hazardous | 55 | less than 1% |
Note: From Inditex's 2024 sustainability report. This is waste from their own sites only, and Inditex recycle 91% of it. It does not include store waste or the packaging placed on the market.
The striking line here is textile. Only 1,054 tonnes of Inditex's own waste is fabric, because they do not sew most of their clothes themselves. The offcuts and scraps sit in the suppliers' factories, which Inditex do not count in tonnes.
What do Zara say about their waste
Zara point to their Join Life label and their in-store clothing collection, where shoppers can drop off used garments for reuse or recycling. In 2024 Inditex collected 19,484 tonnes of used clothing and footwear this way.
The programme is real, but the maths is lopsided. In the same year Inditex put 678,596 tonnes of new raw material into clothing, so the take-back recovers roughly one tonne for every thirty-five they produce.
Inditex have set firmer goals for the material itself. They aim for 100% lower-impact fibres by 2030 and reached 73% in 2024, and they target net zero by 2040, though their emissions have fallen only about 5% against a 2018 baseline so far.
Independent reporting has kept the pressure on. In June 2025 Greenpeace found Zara-branded clothing dumped near protected wetlands in Ghana, and investigators have tracked discarded fast-fashion garments to open dumps in Chile's Atacama Desert, where Zara was among the brands found.
Emissions are a separate matter. Inditex report around 13.5 million tonnes of greenhouse gas a year, and about 99.5% of it sits in their supply chain rather than their shops. That is carbon dioxide, not physical waste, so it is not part of the waste figures above.
Frequently asked questions about Zara's waste
Below are the questions people most often ask about Zara's packaging and waste.
How much waste do Zara produce each year?
We estimate around 500,000 tonnes of packaging and operational waste in 2026. Zara do not report on their own, so this is their roughly 72% share of the 698,682 tonnes Inditex reported for all their brands in 2024.
Does Zara report their own waste figure?
No. Waste is reported by their parent company Inditex for the whole group, covering Zara, Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho and Zara Home together. There is no Zara-only number.
What kind of waste do Zara produce most of?
Packaging. Inditex placed 521,448 tonnes of packaging on the market in 2024, far more than the waste from their own sites, which was 60,269 tonnes.
How much clothing does Zara make?
Inditex do not publish how many garments they produce, so any item count is an estimate. What they do report is the raw material, 678,596 tonnes turned into product in 2024, up 5% on the year.
Does Zara recycle old clothes?
They collect them. Inditex gathered 19,484 tonnes of used clothing for reuse or recycling in 2024, but that is about 3% of the new material they use, and less than 1% of clothing worldwide is recycled back into new clothing.
Are Zara's emissions counted in this waste figure?
No. Inditex's greenhouse-gas emissions, around 13.5 million tonnes a year, are reported separately. Emissions are gas, not physical waste, so they are not part of the waste total.
How do we estimate Zara's waste?
We take the 698,682 tonnes of packaging and operational waste Inditex reported for the group in 2024, then apply Zara's roughly 72% share of Inditex sales to reach about 500,000 tonnes.
Images: EuroJohn, Ajay Suresh
