EuRIC Textiles Publishes Circularity Manifesto

The European Recycling Industries’ Confederation (EuRIC) Textiles has released a “textiles manifesto,” presenting five key policy recommendations to increase circularity in the textiles sector by 2030.

“By creating an environment where innovation thrives and circularity is rewarded, EuRIC aims to reduce the textile sector’s environmental impact, boost textile circularity in Europe, and create new economic opportunities for reuse and recycling operators,” said Mariska Boer, president of the EuRIC’s Textiles Branch. “Our textiles manifesto outlines the steps to achieve this.”

The European recycling body’s textile branch, which is comprised of national federations active in the collection, sorting, reuse and recycling of used textiles, said its members can actively contribute to the European Union’s decarbonization efforts in the manifesto “threading up circularity.”

Key legislative measures include developing extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes in all EU member states, introducing “ambitious” ecodesign requirements promoting the use of recycled content in new products, better educating European consumers—and textile waste sorters—on fiber composition, and establishing clear EU End-of-Waste (EOW) criteria.

The first recommendation covers the introduction of ecodesign requirements for textiles.

“Ecodesign requirements for textiles should become standard practice,” the manifesto reads. “Proper design has to ensure that products can be easily repaired, reused, disassembled, and recycled at the end of the life, ultimately creating a closed loop system.”

If the European Commission can take “an ambitious, stepwise approach” to defining—and reviewing—ecodesign performance requirements, per the EuRIC, it would be of crucial relevance, “as ultra-fast-fashion continues to degrade the quality of textiles collected,” which, in turn, makes “reuse and recycling harder due to the increased use of cheap synthetic fibers and low-quality production.”

The second recommendation would strengthen the fair trade of used textiles, as EuRIC believes establishing a strong internal (European) market for reuse and recycling is “key” to achieving textiles circularity by 2030.

“In this respect, introducing EU EOW criteria for both reuse and recycling is crucial to reflect the specific needs of the textile waste stream,” the manifesto reads. “EuRIC Textiles calls for EOW criteria designed to create a well-functioning EU market for reusable and recycled materials and support the implementation of waste management and ecodesign legislation.”

That includes EOW for reuse and EOW for recycling. The former can be granted “when a textile fraction is deemed suitable for reuse without further processing,” while the latter can be given when the “output of the recycling process is equivalent to primary raw materials and ready for direct conversion into new textile products or other types of goods.”

That translates to textiles counting as “reusable” once a professional sorter confirms they don’t need further processing, and materials counting as “recycled” once processed and ready to replace virgin raw materials in new products.

“To ensure that only second-hand textiles, not textile waste, are shipped outside the waste regime, establishing a detailed sorting process prior to any shipment is crucial,” per the report. “EuRIC Textiles strongly supports the establishment of harmonized EU sorting criteria to ensure that only second-hand textiles, which meet the destination’s requirements, are shipped outside the waste regime, to be reused.”

The third recommendation would introduce EPR schemes for textiles “clearly supporting” the reuse and recycling sector.

To support Europe’s textile reuse and recycling sector, EuRIC called for inclusive governance, fair EPR fees, equal treatment, targets on reuse and recycling, tackling ultra-fast-fashion through EPR eco-modulation, and raising awareness on separate collection.

“On top of establishing EPR schemes, EuRIC Textiles calls for reduced VAT rate on second-hand products and repair services to boost market demand for used textiles, stimulating the whole value chain,” the manifesto reads. “Furthermore, recycling services in the EU should also benefit from lower VAT rates to enhance competitiveness against virgin material production.”

The fourth recommendation would balance chemicals legislation: ensuring compliance without harming the circular economy, as “protecting human health and the environment is essential for textile recyclers,” per the manifesto.

“Effective toxic-free product design (by limiting the use of substances of concern in textile products and complying with REACH) would significantly reduce the need for energy-intensive technologies to recycle waste textiles,” reads the report. “EuRIC Textiles demands transparency across the entire value chain. The future of textiles must be free from intentionally added chemicals that hinder recycling and pose a risk to human health.”

However, chemical rules are constantly changing; what’s kosher today may be condemned tomorrow. This is one of the trickier obstacles the circular economy faces; considering if a material currently in use is deemed non-compliant, recyclers are left to “manage the consequences.”

To that end, EuRIC suggests a pragmatic, risk-based approach, balancing product safety with the circular economy’s goals, is essential. This would mean that future laws would ensure that recycled textiles can compete fairly with their brand-new counterparts and that second-hand products aren’t penalized. Small and medium-sized businesses—most of the textile recycling sector, per EuRIC—therefore need clear, practical rules to adhere to.

In this context, EuRIC presented three calls to action: Set realistic safety limits for recycled textiles based on how recycling works; create a monitoring system that makes sense, especially given how hard it is to track all the chemicals in old clothes; and get regulators, recyclers and brands working together to design safe, recyclable products that follow the rules.

“The future of textiles must be free from intentionally added chemicals that hinder recycling and pose a risk to human health,” Boer said.

The fifth (and final) recommendation would “improve consumer and textile sorter information with an effective digital product passport and clear labels,” per the manifesto.

Take, for example, the digital product passport (DPP): something that can (and should) be “very useful” for the textile stream if it provides “clear, structured and easily accessible data.” If DPPs can, then everyone wins: consumers can make more informed choices, public authorities can perform better checks and controls, and, in turn, sorters are given more details about the material matrix of a given garment.

“The DPP needs to be designed for easy access by sorters, especially by avoiding an overload of unnecessary data,” the manifesto reads. “The DPP’s technology will be particularly key by taking into account the specificities of the sorting process and allowing for instant verification.”

Via the DPP, the EuRIC suggested the way textiles are labeled when placed on the EU market needs to be improved. This includes ensuring physical labels complement their digital counterparts, introducing mandatory durability information requirements as well as recycled information data, and enforcing stricter compliance monitoring.

“Incentives should be encouraged to support the DPP’s deployment in the reuse and recycling sector,” per the manifesto. “EuRIC Textiles calls for more funding at both EU and national levels into research, innovation and the scaling up of infrastructure for the high-quality manual and/or automatic composition sorting of textiles. This is crucial for the industry to be ready to make use of collected waste by means of reuse, recycling, reusing or repairing.”