Karadeniz Tex – Leading Exporter and Recycler of Secondhand Textiles

Company overview

Karadeniz Tex B.V. is a Dutch textile sorting and recycling company at Nijverheidstraat 9, 3264 XL Nieuw-Beijerland, south of Rotterdam, with more than two decades in the trade. Its output goes to both the Dutch market and export buyers, and customers can collect finished goods directly.

Three figures are published on the site: over 20 years of experience, 15,000 tonnes of CO2 saved annually, and 5 tonnes processed per day. The last one is the number that should shape your expectations.

Read the daily tonnage before anything else

Five tonnes a day is a small plant. Across a normal working year that is roughly 1,250 tonnes, which means a single 40 ft container of around 25 tonnes represents about a working week of total output.

That is not a criticism, it is a planning constraint. If you are buying one container a quarter, this is a comfortable supplier. If you need three containers a month of a single line, the arithmetic says look elsewhere or expect to be one of very few customers. Ask directly what share of daily output is already committed before you build a schedule around them.

The two published figures are at least consistent with each other, which is worth noting because environmental numbers are often decorative. Fifteen thousand tonnes of CO2 against roughly 1,250 tonnes of textile works out at about 12 kg of CO2 avoided per kilo processed, a figure in the range normally used for textile reuse rather than an invented round number.

The certification chain is the real differentiator

Most companies in this directory assert quality. Karadeniz Tex points to third parties who check it:

• KIWA certified, with annual KIWA audits for compliance with law and regulation.
• Member of the Dutch textile recycling association and of the Vereniging Herwinning Textiel, operating under the Certificeringsregeling Herwinning Textiel.
• Registered with VIHB, administered by NIWO, as a recognised trader in textile waste.

The practical value is paperwork, not virtue. Used textile moving across EU borders is regulated as a waste stream when it is not clearly destined for reuse, and the status of the party you buy from affects how smoothly a consignment clears. A supplier on a national waste-carrier register with an annual external audit is a lower-risk counterparty for exactly that reason, and the audit means somebody outside the company has looked at the process at least once a year. Buyers comparing second-hand clothing suppliers should treat a checkable registration as worth more than any adjective on a homepage.

How deeply the material is sorted

The process starts with a pre-sort into 40 categories, followed by a fine sort, with multiple quality checks along the way. Output is grouped into three tiers:

• Creme / Extra quality, the highest wearable grade, packed in bags.
• Quality A/B, wearable textile, packed in small bales.
• Recycling, for what is not fit to wear again.

One thing to clear up before ordering: the site gives two different figures for the number of finished products, 125 on the homepage and 300 on the products page. Ask which is current, because it changes what you can actually order. A 40-category pre-sort feeding a deep fine sort is a genuine strength when you want narrow lines rather than mixed bales, and the trade-off is the same one it always is. More categories means more precise buying and less of the mixed-bale lottery, but each extra category needs enough volume to fill a bale, so narrow lines usually carry a higher price per kilo and a longer wait at a plant handling 5 tonnes a day. If the vocabulary of tiers is unfamiliar, the grade glossary explains what Cream and A/B normally cover, and the account of how sorting plants split their intake explains why the tiers exist at all.

Practical details

Bags for the top grade and small bales for A/B is a packing choice aimed at buyers who move goods in shop-sized quantities rather than by the pallet, which fits a plant of this size. Collection from the site is offered, which for a Benelux or German buyer removes the freight margin entirely and turns the purchase into a van run.

Office hours are Monday to Friday, 07:00 to 16:00, and the company can be reached at [email protected] and +31 186 69 26 32. Nieuw-Beijerland sits on Hoeksche Waard, about forty minutes from the port of Rotterdam, so sea freight and road delivery into Belgium and Germany are both straightforward. Anyone assembling a wholesale programme from several sources will find this a useful second supplier for graded lines even where the volume is too small to be the first.

Frequently asked questions

Where is Karadeniz Tex based?

At Nijverheidstraat 9, 3264 XL Nieuw-Beijerland in the Netherlands, on Hoeksche Waard south of Rotterdam.

How much does it process?

The company publishes a figure of 5 tonnes per day, which is roughly 1,250 tonnes across a working year.

Is it certified?

Yes. It is KIWA certified with annual audits, a member of the Dutch textile recycling association and of the Vereniging Herwinning Textiel under the Certificeringsregeling Herwinning Textiel, and registered with VIHB through NIWO as a recognised textile waste trader.

What quality tiers does it sell?

Creme and Extra as the top wearable quality packed in bags, Quality A/B as wearable textile in small bales, and a recycling stream for the rest.

How many product lines are available?

The site states a pre-sort into 40 categories followed by a fine sort, but gives two different totals for finished products, 125 on one page and 300 on another, so confirm the current figure before ordering.