In a news statement sent through email, a consortium representing the textile, clothing, and fashion industries urged the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to incorporate textile reuse and recycling into its ongoing updates of the FTC Green Guides.
According to the group’s letter to the FTC, there will be no discussions of textiles at a series of workshops on recycling that will be held on Tuesday in an effort to broaden the scope of the Green Guides.
Among the 22 signatories are UpWest, a subsidiary of Express Inc., political advocacy group Politically In Fashion, and American Circular Textiles, a network of fashion firms and others created by fashion circularity advisory company Circular Services Group.
According to the most recent report from American Circular Textiles, whose members include The RealReal, Rent the Runway, ThredUp, Arrive, Fashionphile, Supercircle, Thrilling, Debrand, H&M, Reformation, Sortile, and America’s Best Cleaners, textile waste in the U.S. has increased by 80 per cent over the past 20 years and is the fastest-growing waste stream. According to the report, more than 30 billion pounds of textile waste are burned and dumped every year.
“We encourage the FTC to provide an additional workshop focused on textiles to appropriately acknowledge this pressing reuse and recycling topic,” the group said.
