In a warehouse on the outskirts of Barcelona, women stand at conveyor belts, manually sorting T-shirts, jeans and dresses from large bales of used clothing ¡ª a small step toward tackling Europe¡¯s towering problem of discarded fashion.

Within a year, the sorting center run by garment reuse and recycling charity Moda Re plans to double the volume it handles to 40,000 metric tons annually.

¡°This is just the beginning,¡± said Albert Alberich, director of Moda Re, which is a part of Spanish charity Caritas and runs Spain¡¯s biggest secondhand clothing chain.