United Kingdom-based Eunomia Research & Consulting says a number of significant brand owners in the apparel sector, such as Adidas, Bestseller, C&A, H&M Group, Inditex, and VF Corp., have been working with it to conduct research and publish a set of guidelines to enable a seamless transition to a circular economy for textiles in the European Union.
According to Eunomia, the brands have shown an interest in ‘how waste management schemes will be operationalised and harmonised’ in the EU given that region’s preference for extended producer responsibility (EPR) systems. This interest has been shared with the Amsterdam-based organisation for the apparel industry, Policy Hub – Circularity for Apparel & Footwear.
The consultancy firm says, the garment industry is aware that it is one of the most polluting sectors of the global economy, accounting for more than 10 per cent of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and having a poor global recycling rate.
A new industry-funded paper that explicitly examines the part that EPR will play in the future of the textiles industry was co-authored by Eunomia.
The report makes several recommendations specifically related to EPR, such as establishing a uniform definition of the ‘obligated producer’ in such systems, specifying which textiles are initially and potentially in the future covered by an EPR system, recommending upfront the
principles for reporting systems to calculate and allocate fees, and guaranteeing data security to build trust within the EPR system.
The garment and footwear industries are coming together, according to The Policy Hub – Circularity for Garment & Footwear, to create ambitious rules that speed up sustainable practises. The group speaks for more than 700 companies, retailers, and producers involved in the garment and footwear industries.
