In 2022, ECOS welcomed the EU Strategy on Sustainable Textiles. The Strategy sets the vision for reforming an extremely polluting sector, in line with what we had been repeating for years: unless we slow down, our planet will become the ultimate fashion victim.

Faster and faster – towards disaster

The environmental and social impacts of the textile sector are growing by the minute.

Today, clothes are being produced, consumed and discarded more than ever before – more than the planet can handle. In just 15 years, between 2000 and 2015, the total amount of clothes produced in the world doubled. The share of synthetic fibres is now peaking at 65% of total production. Studies show that we buy twice the amount of clothing as 15 years ago, while only wearing the garments for half as long.

The production and manufacturing processes are an environmental and social hotspot for the sector: this is where most of the environmental impact occurs, with huge amounts of hazardous chemicals posing severe threats to the environment and workers.

This is unacceptable: the existing production patterns and linear economy put an enormous pressure on our planet, its resources, environment, and climate, and is simply unsustainable.

Minimum requirements to reduce environmental impacts

In 2022, the tide finally started turning. This crucial moment had long been in the making, with ECOS building momentum towards it for years, rallying progressive stakeholders behind a shared cause.

In 2020, together with more than 60 other civil society organisations, we released a non-official (or “shadow”) strategy, proposing a set of legislative and non-legislative actions that the EU can undertake to contribute to fairer and more sustainable textile value chains.

As our textiles expert, Valeria Botta, explains, we need to reduce resource use, and we need clothes designed to be used, mended and loved for a long time. We need a new approach to clothes, which looks beyond seasonal collections. We need clothes which are durable in a physical, but also emotional way.

Textiles should be toxic-free, and produced in a fair and sustainable way, Valeria Botta goes on to say. But how can this be done? We had our answer ready as early as 2021, when we published our flagship report Durable, repairable and mainstream: How ecodesign can make our textiles circular. The report provided a new, progressive vision and outlined specific recommendations on how to apply ecodesign requirements to textiles, addressing aspects such as durability, reusability, repairability, recyclability, or the presence of hazardous chemicals.

We used all possible channels to profile and amplify our messages, and this included presenting the report at key EU fora, leading joint campaigns, including Wardrobe Change active since 2021, or direct advocacy towards MEPs, progressive industry, the EU institutions, the media and… everyone involved in the sector. We knew we needed to be visible and heard: we contributed to every consultation, took part in every workshop, and left no stone unturned.

Ambitious EU legislation can change the way we see fashion

We were extremely happy to see the 2022 Textiles Strategy put forward proposals for mandatory ecodesign requirements and reinforced market surveillance, as well as more transparency with digital product passports, measures to tackle microplastic pollution, and extended producer requirements for textiles, at the same time acknowledging the issue of destruction of unsold and return goods. In addition, the proposal indicated clear targets for textile reuse.

Our key demands made it to the Strategy, which went as far as to quote our 2021 report. We also managed to contribute to mainstreaming of the issue: some of the biggest outlets in Europe (including the BBC, Süddeutsche Zeitung and ABC) wrote about our work, and, more importantly, the problem, ensuring widespread awareness-raising, which goes well beyond political advocacy: to tackle fast fashion we need better policies, standards and laws, but we also need a change in mindset across the board.

The EU really has a chance to end fast fashion once and for all. This would have an obvious global spillover effect – and could drastically limit the negative impacts of this very important sector. More initiatives are coming to help make this happen, including the revision of the textile labelling regulation, extended producer responsibility requirements for textiles and the initiative on unintentionally released microplastics (2023), to name a few. And ECOS will work to ensure their ambition, keeping our eyes on the ultimate prize: a healthy and clean planet, for all.