In the opinion on the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) welcomes the fact that the separate collection of textiles will be mandatory for all waste producers by January 2025.

It flags up the crucial role of local and regional authorities in the transition from an extractive, linear production system to a regenerative, circular model. Nevertheless, the Committee points out that the effectiveness of local systems for the collection of textile waste remains a key challenge and stresses that the total cost of collecting, separating and recycling textile waste must be less than the costs of managing household waste, in order to encourage an effective circular transition of the sector.

The CoR also calls for the introduction of mandatory minimum Green Public Procurement criteria and calls on the Member States to regulate Green Public Procurement by means of action plans or national strategies. According to the Committee, such action plans and national strategies will need to rely on exchanges of local and regional knowledge and good practices in order to ensure that they are implemented as broadly as possible.

This CoR opinion was drawn up in response to the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles, available in 24 European languages.