INTERNATIONAL
The European Textile Services Association (ETSA) has seen its work to raise the profile of the industry as a model of the circular economy featured on the Politico website, bringing the established circular ethos of the industry to a wide and politically aware international audience. The Association sponsored the article which identifies the pillars of the textile care circular economy as longevity of products, localism in the supply chain, repair services, reuse options and resource optimisation. As the co-authors of the piece say: “it’s all part of the textile services sector’s DNA.”
Politico’s avowed vision is “to be the dominant source for news on politics and policy in power centers across every continent where access to reliable information, nonpartisan journalism and real-time tools create, inform and engage a global citizenry”. According to Politico, its readers are five times more likely to work in government; twice as likely to be an elected official, and; three times more likely to be a ‘C-suite executive and 66%, according to its research, say Politico informs their opinion. Politico.com is visited by 54 million people per month and Politico EU averages more than 3.2 million visitors a. month. As an awareness raising ploy, ETSA has hit the right button here.
The report was written by Andreas Holzer (pictured at the 2022 ETSA conference in May), chair of the board of directors at ETSA and managing director of Bardusch*, and Arvid Luth, founder and managing director of response (sic) Software Engineering.
According to the report, the textile service industry in Europe totals roughly €11 billion with a network of thousands of professional laundries of different sizes. A classic full service includes the initial procurement of the textiles or garments and continues with a textile circle on washing, repairing and supplying the textile goods on daily or weekly basis. ETSA acts as representative of the big multinational operators and the national textile services associations (including the UK despite Brexit).
The report says: “For decades, textile services have been a product-as-a-service business model, which is key and fundamental to circularity. Longevity of products, localism in the supply chain, repair services and reuse options, as well as resource optimisation, are indeed part of the textile service’s DNA. Today, many other sectors are looking at textile services with interest and respect.
There is good news on recycling and repurposing as the industry is already doing this but there are some loopholes that can be closed to make things even more effective, believe the authors who say: “According to ETSA’s latest resource consumption survey (2021), more than 60% of all textile products are recycled. Of end-of-life textiles, 32% were delivered for direct reuse to items or fabric in particular for cutting up for cleaning rags and wipes; 35% were delivered for other recycling options including tearing for miscellaneous products. New ‘recycling hubs’ for industrial textiles will be playing a paramount role. Textile manufacturers and the textile services sector together will help close the loop and leave the least-possible amount behind for incinerators. Through all this we will achieve an effective reduction of resource consumption as well as of carbon emissions. The recycling, re-using or even remaking options also makes good business sense to our members.”
*Bardusch, founded in 1871, has more than 30 locations in six European countries and washes 450 tons of laundry daily, supplying one million users. It was one of the first in the industry to introduce a environmental management system, in accordance with EMSAS III, the European Union’s eco-management and audit scheme.
