UK Outlines Proposals To Support Sustainable Fashion
The government has unveiled plans to reduce waste, which include measures to increase action on fast fashion and hold manufacturers accountable for textile waste.
Let’s Recycle reports that the 18 March announcement coincided with Global Recycling Day, and the plans outlined by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) are part of a new wide-ranging Waste Prevention Programme for England.
The programme sets out how the government and the fashion industry can take action to minimise waste and work towards a more resource-efficient economy. This includes steps to use resources more efficiently, design and manufacture products for optimum life and repair and reuse more items.
The Government will consult stakeholders by the end of 2022 on options for textiles, such as an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme, which would ensure the industry contributes to the costs of recycling, supported by measures to encourage better design and labelling.
This aims to help boost the reuse and recycling of textiles and reduce the environmental footprint of the sector.
The consultation document states that by the end of 2025, DEFRA will review and consult on EPT for five new waste/material streams, one of which will be for textiles.
DEFRA states that the fashion industry is estimated to account for 4 per cent of annual global carbon emissions, while textiles production leads to greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to the emissions of France, Germany and the UK.
The government aims to galvanise industry action through a new voluntary agreement, Textiles 2030, which will aim to reduce the environmental footprint of the textiles sector through science-based targets.
Textiles 2030 is UK waste recycling charity WRAP's expert-led initiative that embraces the knowledge and expertise of UK leaders in sustainability to accelerate the widescale move towards a circular economy, and system change in the UK's fashion and textiles industry.
It aims to reduce carbon emissions by 40-50 per cent, in line with the Paris Agreement goal of restricting temperature rise to less than 1.5ºC.
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