11 European nations seek ambitious measures to tackle waste in textile

In a joint paper sent last week, the countries highlighted the need for an ‘ambitious and comprehensive’ strategy that covers the entire value chain.

This is essential to achieve Europe’s climate ambitions and help its textile industry become more competitive and sustainable, the countries said.

On an average, every European annually consumes 26 kg of textiles, out of which 11 kg are discarded due to ‘fast fashion’ trends, according to the European Commission.

“Reducing carbon emissions is one of the pillars of the Paris Agreement. We believe the textile industry can play a key part in this,” said Dutch environment minister Steven van Weyenberg.

“I think it’s important that the EU drafts an ambitious strategy, making sustainable textiles the norm and opening the way to a cleaner and healthy future. That’s why we’ve submitted a proposal for concrete measures, together with ten other countries,” he added.

The joint paper comes after the Netherlands invited EU countries in June to discuss sustainability in textiles. After the meeting, a joint letter was sent to European Commission leaders, including Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius and EU climate chief Frans Timmermans.

The letter called for clear, ambitious targets for textile collection, reuse, and recycling. Currently, less than 1 per cent of textiles worldwide are recycled into new textiles and the majority of recycling is downcycling, which lowers the quality of the material.

The countries urged the Commission to explore which materials could have textile-to-textile recycled content requirements, which would boost recycling rates. The Commission is considering similar targets but is yet to confirm whether these would be included in the upcoming strategy, according to a report in an European media outlet.

The countries also called for more research into how to encourage the longer use of clothes and said those measures should be considered to prevent the destruction of unsold garments, which some shops end up doing.

Greenwashing also needs to be prevented, according to the signatories, who called for a mandatory label that shows buyers what they are buying and how it was made.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)