ECOS | Environmental Coalition on Standards

23 March 2022

Durable, Repairable and Mainstream – Let’s slow down and make our textiles circular

By Valeria Botta

The environmental impacts of the textile sector are growing by the minute. Unless we slow down, our planet will become the ultimate fashion victim. On 30 March, the European Union is releasing a dedicated EU Strategy on Textiles, meant to allow a shift to a climate-neutral circular economy. This will require an integrated, multi-faceted approach: while policymakers make sustainable products the norm in the EU, the industry will need to shift its business models to operate within planetary boundaries.

The environmental impacts of the textile sector are growing by the minute. Changing the way we produce and use clothes will be key to ensuring a greener and more sustainable Europe. Unless we slow down, our planet will become the ultimate fashion victim.

On 30 March, the European Union is releasing a dedicated EU Strategy on Textiles, meant to allow a shift to a climate-neutral circular economy, where products are designed to be more durable, reusable, repairable, recyclable. This will require an integrated, multi-faceted approach: while policymakers make sustainable products the norm in the EU, the industry will need to shift its business models to operate within planetary boundaries.

An ambitious EU Textiles Strategy will be key to delivering on the bloc’s zero pollution objectives and 2050 climate-neutrality target, as well as advancing the goal for the respect of human rights and decent work rights worldwide. We are on the brink of making textiles truly circular, and leading a global market transformation– this is an opportunity we cannot afford to miss.

Why textiles?

Today, clothes are being produced, consumed and quickly thrown away more than ever before – more than the planet can handle. Since 1975, the global production of textile fiber has tripled. In just 15 years, between 2000 and 2015, the total amount of clothes produced in the world doubled. In addition, the share of synthetic fibers is now peaking at over 65% of total production.

This is unacceptable given that textile products have a tremendous ecological footprint at all stages of their lives. The existing production patterns and linear economy put an enormous pressure on our planet, its resources (including labour), environment, and climate, and is simply unsustainable.

The time for greener textiles is now

It is not too late for the EU to show ambition, slow down the loop and make sustainable clothes the norm.

But to achieve this, the EU must create mandatory and ambitious measures starting by setting an EU-wide quantitative target for material and consumption footprint reduction with specific objectives for the sector, and an accompanying timeline.

At the same time, the new Strategy should remove inefficient, toxic, wasteful and polluting products from the EU market. This can be done building on the huge success of ecodesign, a fantastic tool that has made a great number of appliances much more energy-efficient. We urgently need to establish minimum ecodesign requirements that address durability, reusability and recyclability, as well as eliminate hazardous chemicals, while tackling microplastic release.

Finally, the new Strategy should promote upstream solutions, focusing on prevention and reuse. It is not enough to focus on recycling – we will not recycle our way out of the massive textile waste volumes. The issue becomes even more serious if we look at the number of unsold clothes that are destroyed every year without ever being used: such activities should be banned, without exceptions.

 

Clothes have a tremendous impact on the environment. But we can still reverse the tide with an ambitious EU Strategy on Textiles and an equally robust Sustainable Products Initiative. It is time for the textile industry to take the long-overdue steps and put the sector back on track towards achieving true circularity and do away with the disastrous linear ‘fast fashion’ model.

ECOS is co-funded by the European Commission and EFTA Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or EISMEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

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