Thread #8: Textiles heating up
It might be too much to say textiles circularity is “lit”, but for sure we see broad interest in the topic. While some of us have spent parts of the week wearing our most expensive outfits, others have toiled in the office with EU Horizon calls.
Expensive outfits are of course worn at skiing destinations: multi-layer technical wear made from innovative fiber compositions, and large shares of polyesters, polyamides, elastane and other materials to ensure comfort, warmth and breathability in the slopes or while climbing a mountain. Week 8 is winter holiday season in Norwegian schools, which means everyone with kids in school age are compelled to take to the mountains for various types of skiing. With it comes a requirement to acquire clothes that can make both yourself and the family sustain anything form minus 15 to plus 10 degrees Celsius — often with a light (or not so light) drizzle of snow. As Mari wrote last week , these textiles are often both quite expensive and are subject to hard use. Making them robust and repairable is important. We are happy to see the reuse and repair movement gain traction, with companies like Vandre.
No greenwashing at Zalando after April
In the same vein, we note the decision from Europe’s largest fashion retailer Zalando to overhaul its sustainability claims after the EU qualified them as “misleading”. The Consumer Protection Cooperation Network (CPC), a network of authorities responsible for the enforcement of EU consumer protection laws, started a coordinated action with in April 2022 which led to the online retail giant’s decision to adjust its practices from April this year. Four authorities from Germany, Denmark, Norway and Sweden have led the investigation, coordinated by the European Commission. Congratulations to Forbrukertilsynet, Trond Rønningen, Tonje H. Drevland and teams for seeing this through.
Data driving climate reduction in textiles
The realization that clothes and textiles is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption and other adverse climate effects, is also making its way into the mainstream and into business newspapers magazines like Finansavisen and Kapital. We enjoyed reading the of Kapital, by comprehensive article in this week’s edition , on how organizations like , brands, tech companies — and Hans Jørn Næss — are working to increase transparency and traceability in the textiles value chain. And hopefully: reduce the climate impact.
Fashion’s best hope for circularity?
To truly address the climate impact of textiles, it is necessary to address the massive material flows between textile producing countries and textile consuming countries. It is important to stop the “waste colonialism” from “rich” to “poor” countries, where Europe exports lots of its used textiles — unsorted — to the global south with little traceability and even less control. But countries in Europe also have limited insight into what kind of textile compositions are flowing into their markets when online retailers like and are sending packages directly to consumers from China. An interesting article by Brooke Roberts-Islam points to the role of textile producing countries in tackling this issue at its source — potentially obtaining much better data as India soon becomes Shein’s most significant production hub.
See you there?
We’re approaching the end of February, and we’re looking forward to marking Leap Year Day (29 February) in Los Angeles with a demo of our TOMRA Recycling unit sorting textiles for reuse and recycling at Homeboy Threads’ location outside the city of dreams.
Earlier in the week, our good colleagues in TOMRA Group’s Public Affairs team will speak at Bharat Tex 2024 , India’s largest textile conference, on 28 February.
In March, we’re looking forward to hosting an invitation-only event at The Conduit Oslo 12 March to discuss “A New Textile Revolution” with the likes of Simen Mørdre, #JennySkavlan, Cyndi Rhoades and other key voices in the sustainable fashion world.
We will also be attending RISE’s Textile Summit 2024 in Gothenburg on 14 March, and Accelerating Circularity’s workshop at Performance Days in Munich on 20–21 March.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
