European Clothing Action Plan Headed By WRAP Misses Environmental Targets But Sees Hopeful Signs For The Future
Image Courtesy of Pxhere
December 2019 : The four-year pan-European programme ECAP (the European Clothing Action Plan) headed up and managed by Wrap UK, completes this month with the publication of its report “Driving circular fashion and textiles”.
ECAP, which received a £2.6 million grant from the EU life fund, is one of the first EU LIFE funded projects to tackle sustainable clothing in Europe and influence positive action across the entire supply chain.
The summary report details its achievements over a range of innovation projects, conducted through eight work streams by partners in several European countries.
Crucially, it set a target of diverting 90,000 tonnes a year from landfill, but only actually achieved 4,670 tonnes per year between 2015 and 2019.
On water-savings too it only achieved less than 10% of the 588 million cubic metres of annual savings that were the 2015 target.
However it did better with CO2 savings achieving 50% of its annual target of 1.6 million tonnes of savings.
The report “Driving circular fashion and textiles” signposts valuable resources including new guidance, white papers and key learnings which are available to inspire and inform any business or Government, in any country.
The report details key findings from a series of small-scale demonstration projects testing practical interventions across the supply chain.
These pilots range from introducing sustainable design and production practices to addressing the pressure of consumption on the environment; and developing more sustainable public-procurement models.
At the disposal stage, ECAP focussed on improving textile collections, recycling and reprocessing through research and practical trials and fibre-2-fibre recycling.
ECAP pilots were conducted with retailers and brands across Europe, which have been summarised in a number of case studies showing the potential economic and environmental savings businesses can achieve through greater sustainable practices. They include;
Integrating recycled fibres – here nine companies from fashion brands to work-wear companies, and children’s wear to hotel linen, took part in pilots to recover and turn fibres into new garments through remanufacture. This sought to reduce the use of virgin materials, conserve water and energy, and reduce the amount sent to landfill or incineration. ASOS produced a range of denim jeans made with up to 20% recycled cotton, while Schijvens Corporate Fashion produced t-shirts, polo shirts and blouses made with 30% post-consumer textiles (mixed PET & cotton), 20% industrial textile waste (cotton) and 50% PET (from bottles).
Sourcing more sustainable fibres - a range of European brands and retailers ran pilots to source more sustainable fibres to reduce the impact of clothing produced and sold within the European market. They calculated their environmental impact and developed strategies to improve these; including adopting strategies with targets for sustainable cotton, recycled fibres and eco-friendly processing; achieving significant increases in use of sustainable cotton (such as from 0-70% in Year 1); launching first sustainable clothing (such as a denim collection). Read more about these pioneering pilots.
Peter Maddox, Director WRAP, said; “This has been a huge amount of work by many partners, in many countries. Through ECAP, retailers and brands have reduced the footprint of garments they sell; workwear and brands have piloted cutting edge fibre-2-fibre schemes increasing recycled content in clothing, and household textile collections have increased. I am very proud of what everyone has achieved, and how these resources will help drive sustainable fashion in the future.”
“Clothing ranks sixth in household spending*, but its environmental cost is far greater. The clothing industry has a huge environmental footprint across its supply chain, and at end of life. Its reach is global, and its impacts profound. We too, as consumers, directly contribute to the stress put on the planet by how we dress. ECAP’s challenge has been to improve production, supply, use and disposal of our clothes in ways businesses and people will adopt.”
The ECAP programme ran from September 2015 to December 2019 and was a team effort coordinated and managed by WRAP, which also led on European consumer engagement. Dutch government agency Rijkswaterstaat led Public Procurement, Collections and Fibre-2-Fibre Recovery actions.