ExpectedOutcome:
A successful proposal will contribute to the following Destination impacts: i) enhance European industrial sustainability, competitiveness and resource independence, and ii) improve on consumer and citizen benefits.
Proposal results are expected to contribute to all the following outcomes:
- Recommendations on best innovative solutions for the identification of material composition of used textiles/textile waste embedded in the design of textile products;
- Recommendations on design for recycling for textile products that allows the use of targeted Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes;
- Recommendations on policy tools to reach EU greenhouse gas reduction targets till 2050 (climate neutrality), including the 2030 target.
Scope:
Textiles are the fourth highest-pressure category for the use of primary raw materials and water and fifth for greenhouse gas emissions and a major source of microplastic pollution in production and use phases. They are also a key material and product stream in the circular economy action plan. Improvements in the circularity of the textile value chains will help reduce GHG emissions and environmental pressure. EPR schemes are a lever for circularity. The purpose of this topic is to enable the optimal functioning of EPR schemes for textiles within the EU and to take into account the commitments of the textile strategy on EPR. The circular economy action plan establishes the policy objective to make the textiles sector more sustainable by boosting the circularity of textile consumption i.a. through reuse, separate collection, sorting and recycling of textiles. It also wants to limit textile waste generation and restrict exports of waste that have harmful environmental and health impacts in third countries or that can be treated within the EU. Furthermore, increased amounts of separately collected textile waste are expected because of the Waste Framework Directive’s obligation to separately collect textiles as of 2025.
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes have proven to be an effective tool for improving the treatment of other waste streams and therefore are being considered as necessary in recent consultations by the stakeholders of the textile sector. In view of that, the Commission is assessing the feasibility of introducing EPR for textiles into EU legislation. Proposals should aim to support the high-quality separate collection, preparation for treatment and treatment of used textiles and textile waste, thereby enabling the optimal functioning of EPR schemes in this sector. It will do so by providing recommendations on improving the ease of identification of material composition in a wide range of used textile products/waste to inform the different actors in the use and end-of-life stages of textiles (consumers for use and disposal, social enterprises to enable reuse, waste management operators to enable preliminary treatment and treatment operations). To do so, it will inter alia identify, develop and test innovative labelling of textile products (including through the use of technologies such as AI, blockchain or Internet of Things) to ease separate collection for re-use or end-of-life treatment that leads to high quality secondary raw materials.
Proposals should bring together different stakeholders active in the sector along the value chain, such as waste collectors, waste sorters, repair and reuse organisations. Proposals should also try to address historical liabilities and the impact of textiles coming from outside the EU. Proposals should analyse how EPR schemes can improve the circularity of textiles, assess the material composition in a wide range of used textile products and waste with a view to targeted EPR schemes for improved collection and recycling, and test separate collection options for reuse or end-of-life treatment that could be enforced through EPR schemes. Projects should also identify novel solutions for textile reuse. They should also consider possible rebound effects and only propose measures that will not hamper the market uptake of more sustainable novel textile materials. Projects should also recommend/identify/define tools (policy, legislation, governance, market-based, etc.) that the EU institutions (Commission, Parliament, Council of the EU) could implement or propose in order to reduce the overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the textile sector (including from final consumption, not only production) in the EU in line with the EU greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets till 2050 (climate neutrality), including the 2030 target; for this, the projects should take into account the relevant possible rebound effect.
The targeted TRL at the end of the projects is 6 to 8.
Specific Topic Conditions:
Activities are expected to achieve TRL 6-8 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.
