What impact will the Circular Economy Bill have on our clothing habits?

5 August 2021

It’s estimated that the fashion industry is responsible for 10 per cent of global carbon emissions – which is more than international aviation and shipping combined. It’s a sector that needs to be addressed, and one such way it can be is through the Circular Economy Bill that Cabinet approved earlier this year.

But how does the Bill plan to
tackle the impact of the fashion industry? And what will it change about how we
shop for our clothes and how we dispose of them?

The Waste Action Plan

The Bill is set to implement
many actions from the Government’s Waste Action Plan, which has a
specific section dedicated to textiles.

A core element of the plan is
going to be the creation of a Textiles Industry Action Group to explore options
relating to textile circularity. It is understood that this action group will
be formed by the end of 2021 and that it will include representatives from the
voluntary/charity sector.

 A spokesperson from the Department of
Environment, Climate and Communications told The Green News that focus of the Bill is “firstly on education and
awareness – working with the public, retailers, and producers.”

“We also need to improve data on
textile waste; to regulate for how clothes banks operate more effectively; and
to promote better and more sustainable design,” they added.

Separate Collection

The plan also states that textile
waste will be banned from the general waste bin, landfill and incineration.
This is in accordance with the EU Waste Framework Directive (WFD) which
requires member states to set up separate collection for textiles from January
2021.  So what does this mean in
practice?  Well, that’s still being
worked out.  

Currently the EPA estimates that
63,000 tonnes of  textiles are going into
our general waste bins annually. That’s roughly three times the amount that are
donated to charity shops each year. Of this 12,000 tonnes of garments are sold
for reuse (about 11 million clothing items) with the remaining 11,000
unsuitable for sale and sold to commercial textile recyclers. Due to a lack of
regulation, it’s difficult to get an estimate on what percentage of this 11,000
tonnes are being exported for resale but it is understood that it is the
majority of this figure.

The Community Reuse Network
Ireland (CRNI), with support from the EPA, are currently working on a project
to develop a circular textile system for Ireland.

As part of the project,  due for completion in October 2022, they are
testing 3 different collection methods to see which works best to reduce the number
of textiles entering general waste. The project also aims to gain a better
understanding of the quality of the textiles that are going to be recovered
through different collection streams and what can be done to reuse more
textiles and manage them locally. 

So are we on track to achieve
separate collection by 2025?

“The Department could probably
argue that we have separate collection at the moment,” according to Claire
Downey, Executive at CRNI.

“There are textile banks quite
well distributed throughout the country at the moment. You can bring your
textiles to charity shops and there are a few other random kilo sale shops and
that kind of thing. What we are trying to see is how can we make it as easy as
possible,” she said.

Second hand exports

As we discussed in a previous piece, the second-hand
export trade in its current state is contributing to pressures on the waste
management infrastructure of importing countries in Africa.

The Waste Action Plan
doesn’t specifically outline how issues within this sector will be addressed,
although it does state that in developing separate collection framework
proposals account will be taken of “the potential global impacts of the
international trade in used textiles and in consultation with existing
collection operators.”

We reached out to the Department
to gain some clarity on this point. A spokesperson told The Green News,
“ The department is aware of issues surrounding the flow of second-hand
textiles, particularly the concerns about the damage such material flows can
cause for developing countries. That’s why data is now being gathered on
textile waste flows, to give us a better understanding of what is happening to
these materials.”

The spokesperson went on to say
that as part of its work, the Textiles Working Group will look at existing
regulations to see what changes may be needed.

The Bill does however, state that
a review of regulations on textile collection banks will be undertaken to
ensure compatibility with sustainable development goals, which should have an
impact on the second-hand clothing trade.

Currently there’s no guidelines or
permissions required apart from the local landowner when it comes to clothing
collection bins. It’s something Claire Downey refers to as a point of
contention in the sector.

“One thing that the charity retail
sector is working on is to get some kind of obligation to declare who manages
or who is the beneficiary of the donations,” she told The Green News.

She highlights that while most
collection banks will have a charity name associated with them, there are only 5
charities that have collection banks and channel their textiles direct to
retail stores. The rest are commercial recyclers who donate only 5 or 10 per
cent of their profits to the charity they are affiliated with.

Overconsumption

Ms Downey is keen to stress that
while there are issues to be tackled in the second-hand export sector, the
problem needs to be tackled at its root.

“The very first thing we need to
deal with in all of our countries is overconsumption. That is the real problem
here. We are exporting because we don’t deal with our own textiles and we
consume far too much and the textiles we consume are very low quality. So why
are we generating all this stuff in the first place?”

The Waste Action Plan also
opens the door to looking at an Extended Producer Responsibility Scheme down
the line, something CRNI have pushed for at a national and EU level. Ms Downey
also points to a number of regulations and policy initiatives that can be
implemented at an EU level, including applying eco-design regulations to
textiles. This would mean that manufacturers would be obligated to make sure
products are repairable.

The Bill also states that reuse
targets will be mandatory, something Ms Downey points to as a positive
development as it means it should have some form of support for the second-hand
industry behind it that will help build the industry.

“We need more options for people,
more places you can get second hand. What if you had department stores that had
second hand racks alongside new?”, Ms Downey said.

She also notes that more support
needs to be given to those already in the industry through more sorting centres,
supports to make second-hand online businesses more viable, quality marks and
reduced rates.  

So are we on the right track and
moving fast enough?

In Ms Downey’s view the pace of
change has picked up in the last year or six months. 

“But is it fast enough? Probably
not but it’s starting to move properly. I think we all need to buy into this,
everyone needs to buy into this change.”

By Jane Matthews

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