Femnet e.V.

24.02.2023: News update special: Circularity

In March 2022, the European Commission the "EU strategy for sustainable and circular textiles". Among other things, the strategy serves the implementation of the European Green Deal (2019) and the Circular Economy Action Plan (2020 - see: News Update of KW 42 from 2021), and takes action against fast fashion, textile waste and the destruction of unsold textiles (more on this in News Update 13 from 2022).

In the News Update, we regularly reported on studies and initiatives on the circular economy. In order to show the current developments in the field, the most important recent studies and events within Europe are summarized here.

Developments in...

the EU

Fashion for Good& Circle economy "Sorting for Circularity Europe" + "Sorters handbook" (PDF): The results of the 16-month analysis show that a total of 494,000 tonnes of inferior old textiles (articles that cannot be reused in their original form) are available for fibre-to-fiber recycling in six European countries. This means that the reintroduction of sorted and recycled textiles into the value chain could generate an additional value of €74 million per year. By conducting analyses in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom, the project offers the most comprehensive and representative snapshot of textile waste composition in Europe to date. Using innovative near-infrared technology (NIR) to determine the composition of garments - a task traditionally performed manually - the project analysed a total of 21 tonnes of used garments. Cotton was found to be the predominant fibre (42%), followed by a high proportion of material blends (32%), almost half of which are made of polycotton (12%). Based on three characteristics, the material composition, the presence of confounding factors such as zippers and buttons, and the colour, 21% of the materials examined are considered suitable starting materials for material recycling, while 53% are suitable for chemical recycling (a total of 74%). This represents a great opportunity for the circular economy, as currently only 2% of textiles are recycled fibre-to-fiber after consumption. Building on the project, two open digital platforms, Reverse resources and ;Refashion recycle, bringing textile waste from sorters together with recyclers, identified as important tools to enable the connections needed for a stronger circular economy in the coming years.

Norion Consult & EuRIC Textiles "LCA-based assessment of the management of European used textiles": A new Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), commissioned by the European textile recycling industry, has confirmed that reuse of textiles allows significant CO2 and water savings compared to the production of new clothing. The environmental impact of textile reuse is 70 times lower, even taking into account global exports for reuse, including transport emissions. Specifically, the study found that 3 kg of CO2 is saved for each high/medium quality garment reused. Reuse requires only 0.01% of the water used to make new clothing. These results come against the background that the EU launched its sustainable textiles strategy only a few months ago and that Member States are committed to: Start separate collection of textiles by 2025. The study also includes recommendations to policy makers and calls for initiatives to accelerate investments in state-of-the-art textile recycling facilities around the world. In particular, innovations in the field of fibre-to-fiber recycling are crucial to keep textile fibres in circulation, as the quantities of non-reusable clothing will increase dramatically.

European Environment Agency "Investigating Europe's secondary raw material markets": Secondary raw material markets (SRMs) are crucial for a circular economy. Because SRMs allow recyclable materials to flow back into the production value chain, which reduces the dependence on primary resources. This role is recognised in the EU Circular Economy Action Plan. When assessing the functioning of eight markets for secondary raw materials, the report concludes that only three of these markets - aluminium, paper and glass - work well. The five secondary raw material markets that do not work well include wood, plastics, bio-waste, aggregates from construction and demolition waste and textiles. According to the analysis, the main problems in these markets are their small size compared to the primary materials, weak demand and lack of common specifications, which reduces the quality of materials for industrial use. The report presents several options to overcome market barriers for recycled raw materials: Incentives for designing products that are easier to recycle, tightening recycling targets, increasing recycled content in new products, setting technical standards for recycled materials and using taxes to offset price competition with primary raw materials (further study of the EEC on the role of design for the circular economy in the 2022 KW 7 News Update).

Accelerating circularity "Project Europe update": Accelerating circularity is a non-profit organization that develops new supply chains and business models to convert textile waste into common raw materials (project priorities: Collection of raw materials sorting, pre-processing, chemical and mechanical processing, yarn spinning). In the eruopean control circle are e.g. Amazon, WWF, GIZ, Zalando ;and ;Inditex. The recently released project update reports on the collaboration and its goals.

T-Rex project: A consortium of 12 major players from across the recycling value chain, together with research institutes, has launched an innovative EU-funded project to create a circular system for old textiles. This T-REX project (Textile Recycling Excellence)(PDF) aims to create a harmonised EU approach for the sorting and recycling of textile waste from households in a closed loop. The project aims to help understand and identify the infrastructure, technology and policies needed to support the growth of circular value chains in the textile industry. The partners will work on developing a systematic approach to address the problem of textile waste, resource conservation and the reduction of the fashion industry's environmental footprint.

Critical opinions

Zero waste Europe "Beyond circular fashion" (PDF): The report shows that while existing approaches and initiatives aimed at making fashion fair and sustainable - such as the current push to improve the circularity of fashion products - represent an important step forward, they are not enough to combat harmful business models based on overproduction and overconsumption. To meet planetary boundaries, the report identifies four key criteria that must be met simultaneously to qualify a fashion company as a zero waste: Design for physical and emotional longevity; Demand-driven production to avoid bad purchases and discounts; Complete supply chain transparency and post-sale traceability; Extension of the use phase after first ownership.

RREUSE "RREUSE'S Position Paper on the EU Textiles Strategy" (PDF): In response to the EU Textile Strategy, this paper aims to highlight the contribution to the textile sector of social enterprises active in the reuse, repair and recycling sectors and to highlight the main recommendations of: RREUSE formulate the strategy so that it becomes an effective tool to make the sector more circular and socially inclusive: 1. promoting systemic changes in the design and consumption patterns of textile production; 2. reducing the amount of textile waste through an ambitious waste policy; 3. Development of circular and social textile value chains.

United Kingdom

WRAP "Clothing Longevity and Circular Business Models Receptivity in the UK" (PDF): In autumn 2021, there were WRAP commissioned two large-scale online consumer surveys on the life expectancy of different garments in British wardrobes and the willingness of the British to use new models of clothing purchase. The first part of the study looked at the estimated lifespan of a wide range of garments and how these estimates are influenced by key factors such as demographics, purchasing path and usage behavior. The second study looked at the current behaviour of citizens and their willingness to adopt five circular economy models for clothing in the UK: Subscriptions, rental, used clothing, upcycling and repair. Key findings: Compared to 2013, the wearing time of clothing has increased; Used clothes will be kept longer than newly purchased clothes (nearly 1.5 years); the repair of garments extends their lifespan by a further 1.3 years; 23% of people in the UK say they regularly buy clothes with the intention of using them only for a short time. The general awareness of the models is still low, but more than half of the respondents would like to buy second-hand clothes and three out of five respondents would be interested in using repair services (also interesting: Wrap Initiative Textiles 2030 in News Update 18 from 2021).

British Retail Consortium "Voluntary Guideline on Second-Hand & Preloved Items" (PDF): UK retailers, resale platforms, non-profit retailers and other industry experts have joined forces to develop a guide to second-hand and second-hand goods to help the industry move towards a circular economy. The guide is designed to help companies understand the different channels through which clothing and other items can be kept in a cycle rather than landfilled. The guide contains, among other things, a decision tree for second-hand clothing; In addition, companies are encouraged to provide customers with better and more transparent information about the condition of the goods in order to give them confidence in the quality and condition of the purchased used items.

Circle economy, Institute of Positive Fashion & British Fashion Council "Creating Circular Fashion Ecosystems" (PDF) & "The Circular Fashion Ecosystem Project - Phase 2 - Developing the Roadmap for Change" (PDF): The aim of the collaboration is to kick-start a step-by-step innovation journey for the fashion sector in all major UK cities. The first phase will create a replicable framework based on the two major cities of London and Leeds. This Circular Fashion Ecosystem Project (CFE) to identify opportunities and challenges in the transition of the sector to a more circular model. The main points of action are: 1. Developing a scalable approach to implementing the CFEVision in cities across the UK by integrating Doughnut economy-Principles and the application of circular economy strategies 2. Solutions for returns: Research into the financial, environmental and societal impact of returns of clothing to identify possible remedial actions. The aim is to evaluate various measures and technologies that minimise returns and make them more efficient and sustainable 3. Enabling citizens to enable the longevity of garments: The focus is on empowering citizens to care for and repair their garments through information about QR codes (see the results of the first report in the 2021 News Update of KW 40).

Germany

One Survey of the Munich-based company Software advice surveyed more than 1,000 adults on the topic of the circular economy. 68% of participants said they were aware of the concept, which means that knowledge of the circular economy is more widespread among Germans than in Canada, Australia and the UK, but lags behind Spain. 55% of respondents said that when buying a product, they pay attention to whether a company applies circular economy principles, of which 7% “always” and 48% “sometimes”; 16% don't pay attention to it. 54% agreed with the following statement: “I would stop buying products from a company if I found out that it does nothing to promote a more sustainable or circular economy.” 82% would rather buy products from a company that operates a circular economy than from one that doesn't. 75% cited the recycling of waste as the most effective measure by which companies can promote the circular economy, closely followed by the production of products with a longer lifespan (70%) and to renew products (69%). When asked which sectors are perceived to be most or least implementing the circular economy, 43% found that the circular economy is “somewhat implemented” in the textile industry and 11% that it is “strongly implemented”. Thus, the textile industry performed best (besides automotive, construction, food, technology, chemicals, electronics and furniture). According to the survey Every second respondent buys second-hand goods; Among the most popular second-hand products were books (60%), clothing (56%) and electronics (44%). Renting clothes, on the other hand, is quite unpopular: 53% agree with the statement “I would be interested in borrowing clothes” “not at all”, 27% agree with “little”.

Spain

Decathlon, H&M, IKEA, Inditex, Kiabi, Mango and Tendam ;have Association for the Management of Textile Waste created to manage textile and footwear waste on the Spanish market through a collective system of extended producer responsibility (Scrap). With the creation of this association, these companies want to jointly promote textile recycling in Spain and move to a circular economy model through the correct management of the sector's waste.. A new Spanish law stipulates the separate collection of textile waste by local authorities until 31. December 2024. Within three years of the entry into force of the new law, the Ministry of the Ecological Transition will develop an extended producer responsibility for textiles, i.e. legal regulations that make the separate collection of textile waste from the rest of household waste mandatory (from 2025 onwards, the Ministry sees the Amended European Waste Framework Directive a mandatory separate textile collection for all Member States).

Denmark

The Innovation Fund Denmark has approved approximately EUR 14.3 million for an initiative to ensure a circular economy for plastics and textiles by 2050: Partnership for Circular Economy for Plastics and Textiles. The 92 partner organisations must fulfil one of four national tasks that must contribute to the transition to a circular economy. Members include universities, knowledge institutions, companies, networks, communities and regions. A number of projects, based on a holistic approach to resource consumption, aim to ensure the longevity and better recycling of plastics and textiles.