UK
The recent Textile Services Association (TSA) Annual Conference was warned categorically that any business putting textiles on to the market, ie, introducing them to be purchased, rented or used for the first time really needs to be up to date on their responsibilities under upcoming Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation.
Arthur Linssen of the Dutch TSA presented a paper on EPR that had the shock factor for delegates who may have let this piece of EU legislation pass them by. Until now. “This new legislation will come to the UK,” warned Linssen, who has a key role in working closely with other national TSAs in Europe on the legislation.
“I am here to warn you,” he said. “Listen carefully, this is very relevant if you are putting new textiles into the UK market.” Linssen went on to explain: “EPR stands for responsibility for textile waste. In the Netherlands, legislation is in place already and with EPR that means you are also responsible for the waste [at end of life].
“For a producer [or supplier] putting textiles on the market for the first time, their responsibility is to ensure 50% has to be made suitable for reuse and or recycling. You have to provide a collection system – not usually an issue for laundries. However, if you do not comply you will be fined for an economic offence. And it will be high enough to hurt. It will be painful.
“Of course, laundries resent this, saying: “We already recycle. We are already there – we meet targets, we invest, so why us? They tried to make the case: “We don’t sell textiles we only make them available.” But there is no exception to the rule.
Where this new legislation is such a trial for professional textile care businesses, is because, as Linssen pointed out, 96% of textiles in circulation are fashion items which do need to be taken out of the domestic bin and recycled. However, things are different for laundries which are doing their bit and really current ERP rules don’t and should not apply to them.
Linssen suggested working with a Producer Resonsibility Organisation (PRO) that helps companies comply with Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations. You can transfer responsibility to or sign a contract with a PRO which will aggregate all members, fulfil demand and charge a small fee of, say, €0.20/kilo.
However, warned Linssen: “PRO, we found, was totally fashion-oriented and we were confronted with consumer related issues. The structure had no place for other chain partners. Laundries were out of place and ignored. Laundries are being left out because they are asking difficult questions. You have little time! Lobby! Now!” he urged
Consequences and lessons
In short, targets focus on product reuse (25%) and material reuse (50%) but product reuse is hardly possible in laundries Large purchasing volumes in one year make it difficult to meet targets in the next year. And because It is all new, you do not have enough to meet the targets. Laundries and how they work are completely ignored.
The other downside ,and it is a serious one, is that the PRO piece fee is 6 cents. “Six cents on a face flannel which only costs 10 or 12 cents makes no sense. For designer jeans, yes. So, we fought,” said Linssen.
The rules are so obviously slanted towards retail. “You have to offer a collection system. So, bins are placed in the street where people bring items back. However, a laundry is not allowed to put a bin on a street or dump its linen at its local H&M store. It is an expensive campaign to get people[consumers] to change their ways. However, we [the industry] are getting charged for something we are already doing,” said Linssen.
“There are no discounts or rules to stimulate the use of post-consumer recycled content – ergo – the recycling market gets clogged. You need PRO for offloading responsibility. If you do have a recycler look out in case they go bust because there is too much stuff around,” said Linssen.
Choices – and there is CIBUTEX
• Forget about a PRO and choose doing it yourself
• Or, join a PRO – but you really have to find one that suits you.
• Meanwhile, maybe take al look at CIBUTEX, ‘Circularity for business textiles’ formed in 2022 by Blycolin, Dibella, Edelweiss, Lamme and Nedlin. Through the cooperation of these five companies, strengths and knowledge are bundled, say the website (.https://www.cibutex.eco/en/about-us/) which creates mass volumes that are easier to sell. It is in the very early stages in UK so assume a similar format to Europe, advised Linssen
- CIBUTEX works closely with upcyclers who need larger quantities of B2B post consumer waste/resource textiles for their upcycling process. The textiles required by the upcyclers must be white and made of 100% cotton or blends of maximum 50% polyester.
- CIBUTEX bundles large quantities of B2B post-consumer textiles and sells them to upcyclers who give them a new life. The money CIBUTEX makes from this is passed on to its members on a pro-rata basis and also invested in research and development.
- CIBUTEX’ goal is to send at least 400 tonnes of B2B post-consumer waste textiles to its upcyclers in the second year, bringing the textiles back into the textile supply chain. In doing so, CIBUTEX not only wants to reduce waste, but also achieve water and CO2 savings. It is CIBUTEX’ ambition to take responsibility and support textile recycling to the next level.
