In September 2021, the European Recycling Industry Federation (EuRIC) published a best practice guide aimed at promoting greater circularity of post-consumer textile waste. The guidance is intended to ensure that processing of these materials prior to recycling or reuse does not result in a degradation of their quality. The guidance is to support the implementation of the EU Circular Economy Package, under which local authorities across the EU will be required to separately collect textile waste from 2025.
EuRIC Best Practice Guidelines are published in the context of the EU Circular Economy Package, which was originally developed in 2018 and updated in 2020 to become the European an integral part of the Green Deal. Under the circular economy package, separate collection of textile waste will become mandatory for municipalities or local authorities by 2025. As a signatory to the circular economy package, the UK will also be obliged to enforce the rules.
According to the requirements of the EU Waste Framework Directive (WFD), all EU member states must start classifying textile waste in 2025. WFD stipulates that member countries should establish a classified collection of textiles before January 1, 2025. The WFD also requires member countries to promote (among other things) the repair and reuse of textiles. It should also be noted that sustainable product initiatives currently being developed will apply to areas such as textiles. Any subsequent measures will apply equally to products on the EU market, whether produced within or outside the EU.
The European Commission has developed an EU Sustainable Textiles Strategy. This includes plans to develop eco-design measures to ensure textiles are suitable for reuse and recycling, expand producer responsibility, and create incentives for businesses in the textile industry to rely on more sustainable business models.
In fact, textiles have been identified as a priority sector in which the EU must pave the way for a carbon-neutral, circular economy. According to the European Commission’s roadmap on the EU Textile Strategy, the textile industry is resource-intensive and has a significant impact on the climate and environment. Textile consumption has been designated as the fourth highest pressure category in the EU in terms of primary raw materials and water use, and the fifth highest pressure category in terms of greenhouse gases.
EuRIC guidance supports the implementation of circular economy packages and separate collection requirements for post-consumer textile waste by providing guidance to collectors and sorters of this waste . The main purpose of the guidelines is to ensure that as many textiles as possible can be repurposed. Specifically, it contains some recommendations on how to ensure that impurities that can damage textile quality are identified and removed as quickly as possible to avoid cross-contamination. Among other things, the guidance recommends that collection points should be emptied frequently, that tools transporting textiles must be cleaned after each load, and that any impurities should be identified and removed before transport (or mixing with other goods) wherever possible. At the sorting facility, the textiles should be properly weighed and checked again for any contaminating substances. In addition, the guidelines state that the processing of textiles should not itself lead to a reduction in quality. For example, the transportation and sorting of textiles should not result in their exposure to weather conditions or prolonged storage. </p
