Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is one of the key policies requiring EU Member States to organise separate collection of textile waste as of 2025. EPR schemes are an important tool for reducing the environmental impact of textiles, promoting circularity and contributing to more efficient end-of-life management.
Join the hybrid event on EPR for circularity: towards a more sustainable EU textile sector on
29 November from 15:00 to 17:30 CET at the European Parliament or online.
New waste management policies will change the way the EU handles textiles waste. The proposal for a new Waste Framework Directive aims to accelerate the development of the separate collection, sorting, reuse and recycling of textiles, in line with the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textile and the Circular Economy Action Plan.
On 5 December 2023 at 14:30 - 16:30 a discussion between stakeholders in the value chain will focus on how the sector sees the implementation of the Waste Framework Directive and the Extended Producer Responsibility for textiles in practice.
CircularInvest and DEFINITE-CCRI are launching the Circular Investment Readiness Network, a Europe-wide community of practice to help circular economy projects overcome development and funding challenges.
The initiative will officially kick off online on 21 November, from 10:00 to 12:00 CET.
The transformation into a circular economy entails factoring resource flows into production, sales and consumption processes and thus massively reducing the use of materials (raw or otherwise), as well as the volume of waste and the strain on the environment.
Austria's circular economy strategy therefore aims to:
Fast fashion and disposing of clothes at the end of their lives are generally considered to be the main issues in terms of textile waste. However, pre-consumer waste is another major problem. This occurs a few steps further back in the manufacturing process, and deals with all waste materials created in the supply chain when a product is being made.
Unlike post-consumer waste, it is easier to keep pre-consumer waste away from a landfill or an incinerator as the fabric or garment is essentially brand new, despite one or more repairable defects.
So, finding ways to re-use or use up the resources created is the key to creating an endless supply of materials without further depleting natural resources.
The Transition Pathway for the Textiles Ecosystem was published on 6 June 2023. It is an EU initiative which seeks to build a greener, more circular and digital future for the textiles ecosystem and to make it more resilient and competitive. The pathway, the outcome of a co-creation process with stakeholders, is a comprehensive framework that identifies specific actions. 50 actions have been outlined within eight building blocks, with a timeframe for implementation and a clear picture of the key actors involved. This is a call for commitments.
Circular Week, an international series of events dedicated to sustainable development and the circular economy, will take place this year from 23 to 29 October.
Look through the full agenda of events and sign up!
The Pop-Machina project consortium is thrilled to invite policy stakeholders and decision-makers to participate on 14 September 2023 in its upcoming International Policy Roundtable focusing on the policy recommendations and lessons learnt during the project on circular economy, the maker movement as well as their convergence.
Global biodiversity is being lost at an unprecedented rate, giving rise to a sixth mass extinction and constituting one of the core challenges of the triple planetary crisis. Biodiversity forms the foundation of life on Earth and its loss presents a systemic risk to future human survival. To reverse the biodiversity crisis, transformative systems-wide change is required.
This paper addresses an existing research gap by exploring whether the circular economy can play a role not only in halting biodiversity loss but also in regenerating it and thereby contributing to a nature-positive future. To unlock the regenerative potential of the circular economy, a coherent strategy is needed that provides incentives for all actors, notably policymakers and businesses.
The Albanian social enterprise RecycAl reuses textile waste such as leather or canvas by turning it into heavy-duty bags that could be produced at industrial scale.
