TEXAD, supporting textile waste management

A collaboration in building policies, aiming at a circular economy in the textile and fashion business in Europe. That’s the aim of the new project called TEXAD. A project approved for start in 2024.

TEXAD aims at improving, developing, and driving municipal policy instruments towards working textile circular models. This way European municipalities can contribute towards a modern textile and fashion industry. Just as the EU Waste Framework Directive clearly states.

Supporting policymaking
The TEXAD project focus on policy instruments dealing with waste management, including textile. This includes examining areas of the policies dealing with waste prevention, separate collection, logistics, sorting, and smart waste technologies. The idea is to help prevent waste, as well as support proper sorting, collection, and valorisation of textile waste. This way the textiles can be used in a circular textile loop.

Partners across Europe
TEXAD also examines how to engage key agents in the textile management value chain. This way the project can ensure a holistic approach, that successfully may improve European waste management.
Partners in the proposed project are six municipalities (BG, ES, IT, NL, PT, SE) with a strong textile background and one Regional Development Agency (Poland). A fashion cluster (ES) plays the role of advisory partner, connecting the project with key stakeholders (private sector, technology providers, etc.).

Partners in the TEXAD project

Municipality of Stara Zagora, Bulgaria
Ajuntament de Mataró, Spain
Municipality of Prato, Italy
Municipality of Enschede, The Netherlands
Norte Regional Coordination and Development Commission, Municipality of Santo Tirso, Portugal
City of Borås, Sweden
Rzeszow Regional Development Agency, Podkarpackie Region, Poland
Agrupació Catalana del Tèxtil i la Moda Spain

Background
Some 4 to 6 % of the EU’s overall environmental footprint can be traced back to textiles, according to the EC Joint Research Centre. Its 2021 report shows that recycling rates for textiles are currently rather low, only 1.7 to 2.1 million tonnes of used textiles is annually collected throughout the EU. The majority of the remaining 3.3 to 3.7 million tonnes are thought to be discarded in the mixed household waste.
The EU has launched a set of new regulations & directives (Waste Framework Directive, EU strategy for sustainable textiles, EU Ecodesign regulation, etc.) which forces member states to establish systems for separate collection of textiles waste from January 2025. The WFD asks for waste management systems, where European municipalities have the general responsibility for collecting waste.