Group of 12 launches the European Circular Textile Coalition
Twelve businesses across the European textile value chain have formed a new platform called the European Circular Textile Coalition.
The companies involved in launching the coalition are Reju, Resortecs, COLEO, Tissage de Charlieu, Synergies TLC, Nouvelles Fibres Textiles, Sympany, European Spinning Group, Ariadne, Erdotex, Utexbel and Noyfil.
In a manifesto that they produced for the launch, the companies said: “We refuse to accept textile waste as an inevitability, instead, we see it as a solvable challenge for our generation.”
From the outset, the European Circular Textile Coalition called for “urgent action” at European Union level to connect what it called “regulatory ambition” to investment in recycling and manufacturing systems.
It said it would work to bridge the gap between regulatory edicts and what happens on the ground.
To drive change, the manifesto sets out three policy pillars. One is to ensure a competitive European textile industry, bringing production back to Europe, which it said would help uphold environmental and labour standards.
Secondly, it said it wanted to prioritise high-quality, textile-to-textile recycling, making post-consumer textile waste the main feedstock for new textiles.
Finally, it called for mandatory recycled content in textiles, with “ambitious but realistic” targets phased in over time.
Image: Reju.
