Eco Baltia, the leading environmental and waste management group in the Baltics, has launched a social campaign called "Style-Textile" to reduce textile waste and promote a systemic approach to textile waste sorting and management. As part of the campaign, a striking environmental installation called Fashion Alley has been unveiled in a central park in Riga, Latvia.

Fashion Alley is nearly 80 meters long and consists of hundreds of worn-out clothing items, symbolizing the close link between style and textile waste. Latvian residents frequently purchase new clothing, with over 50% of the population doing so at least once every three months. However, only a third of used clothing is properly recycled or disposed of in textile sorting containers.

The installation aims to encourage residents to rethink their clothing consumption habits and promote textile recycling. The European Union (EU) has mandated that textiles must be collected separately in all member states by 2025. Latvia, one of the first EU countries, has already made textile sorting mandatory since the beginning of 2023. However, regulatory legislation is still under development to regulate the system's implementation and management, including the responsibility of textile manufacturers and retailers.

Globally, textile production involves around 3,500 different chemical substances, some of which are harmful to human health, and produces 100 billion tonnes of various textile products annually. The Fashion Alley installation serves as a reminder to rethink consumption habits and find solutions to reduce and recycle textile waste.