EU Nonprofit Calls for Circular Textile Model

BRUSSELS, Belgium-A report launched by Ecopreneur.eu, the European Sustainable Business Federation, calls for policy measures to transform the textile industry into a circular model, fading away from the current linear model that’s “outdated and unsustainable.”

The nonprofit organization says, “Waste and pollution from the production of textiles and clothing have become critical global issues.” With only one percent of fibers recycled, the organization says it’s time to make a change.

In the current linear model, large amounts of non-renewable resources are extracted to produce garments that don’t have a long life cycle. The organization says its time to make a move toward garments, textiles, and fibers that are “kept at their highest value during use so that they can re-enter the economy and avoid becoming waste.”

According to Ecopreneur’s new report, Circular Fashion Advocacy, a set of policies to accelerate a circular textile economy need a basis of the following:

1. Innovation policies: Research programmes with subsidies, investment tax deduction, and support for technological development, innovation, and small- and medium-sized enterprises.
2. Economic incentives: Procurement, extended producer responsibility, VAT, and a tax shift to drive market demand for circular products and services.
3. Regulation: Establish and enforce a common regulatory framework for transparency and traceability, circular design and improved end-of-waste status across the EU.
4. Trade policies: Facilitate export of semi-finished products and sorted, reusable textile waste to producing countries, and avoid negative social impacts in producing countries.
5. Voluntary actions: Commitments and standards are encouraged to engage stakeholders, with legislation standing by in case of lacking results.

“Governmental policies create the rules by which companies and economies operate. Without an enabling policy framework, [the] circular economy will never become mainstream,” Douwe Jan Joustra, head of circular transformation at C&A Foundation, says.

The purpose of the report, says Joustra, is to provide the industry a baseline of policies and guidelines to build on. “With the support of C&A Foundation, Ecopreneur is also working to increase its cooperation with NGOs and other stakeholders, expand its European business network and support the fashion industry in creating a European circular economy policy strategy,” he adds.

President of Ecopreneur Manfred Mühlberger says the organization intends to dive deeper into a strategy for action and calls upon the entire fashion industry to work together toward a circular agenda.

View the full report here: https://ecopreneur.eu/publications/positionpapersreports.