Out now: NGO recommendations for the EU Strategy for Sustainable Textiles
FeaturedThe Campaign #Wardrobe Change, where HEJSupport is a member, launched its position paper “Recommendations for the EU Strategy for Sustainable Textiles”
Main demands are:
+ Make sustainable textile products the norm through high minimum design standards, better production processes, traceability, transparency and information disclosure, and banning the destruction of unsold and returned goods.
+ Drive resource-sufficient textile consumption with rules on what reliable green claims can be made on products, harmonised labelling, and better information on the expected lifetime and repairability of a product.
+ Leave the linear business model behind by taxing virgin resource use and making producers responsible for the products they put on the market from cradle to grave.
+ Hold the EU textile industry accountable for its role in the world through a trade reset and strong human rights and environmental due diligence rules.
HEJSupport contributed mainly on the chemicals part of the position paper. We demand to stop the chemical overload and go beyond a voluntary approach.
The call comes as clothing and textile production continues to increase, despite an abundance of sustainability initiatives from major fashion brands and retailers.
The European Commission is currently gathering feedback from industry and civil society organisations with the aim of putting forward new measures by the end of the year.
Members of the Wardrobe Change coalition include the following groups and their membership: the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) (coordination), ECOS, RREUSE, Plastic Soup Foundation, Zero, Future in Our Hands, Changing Markets Foundation, HEJSupport, Generation Climate Europe, and Green Liberty.
Also supporting this paper are: Fair Trade Advocacy Office (FTAO), Polish Zero Waste Association, Runder Tisch Reparatur, Zero Waste Europe, Umweltdachverband, FOCISV, Irish Environmental Network, WECF France, Institute Povod Slovenia, ISD Foundation Poland, Na Mysli, OKOBURO, WECF Netherlands, and Wontanara.
