Waste charity launches Textiles 2030 initiative to help fashion firms cut greenhouse gas emissions and foster development of circular economy practices
Concern among the UK public over the environmental cost of their clothes appears to have hit a high following the Covid-19 lockdown earlier this year according to a survey by WRAP, which is urging fashion retailers and manufacturers to confront their outsized environmental impact.
More than half of 2,000 respondents to a survey carried out by the wate charity last month said they now view the environmental impact of clothing as 'severe', while almost two-thirds said they factor how long they expect clothes to last into decisions over which brands they buy.
The research also found personal habits have tilted towards clothing repair and reuse rather than throwing away during the lockdown, with almost one in four (23 per cent) now repairing clothes and one in five (19 per cent) reporting that they keep clothes for longer.
WRAP is using the research to urge fashion businesses to take on board public demand for clothes with lighter environmental footprints, as it launches a new initiative requiring signatories to reduce lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C global warming limit, cut the water footprint of clothing products, and deliver a UK-wide circular textiles roadmap.
Dubbed Textiles 2030, the initiative encourages firms to use a 'Target-Measure-Act' approach, which requires clothing and textile businesses to set targets, measure their impact and track progress on both an individual business basis, and towards national targets and public reporting, WRAP said.
It is designed to follow on from the waste charity's previous SCAP 2020 voluntary agreement initiative - the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan - which counts 140 members from across the fashion industry, including firms such as Tesco, ASOS, Primark, Whistles and M&S. From its launch in 2012 until 2019, SCAP had already exeeded its 2020 deadline targets, with members achieving a near 16 per cent reduction in CO2 per tonne of garments, and a 19.5 per cent cut in water use per tonne of garments.
Last year further progress was still needed to reach the SCAP waste target, however, with members achieving a 2.3 per cent reduction overall in 2019, with just a year to go before the deadline to hit the target of 3.5 per cent. Final results on the SCAP initiative are set to be unveiled next year.
"SCAP 2020 has been an amazing journey and so much has been achieved," said Marcus Gover, chief executive at WRAP. "However, more action is needed by more companies to make clothing more sustainable. That is why we need to continue this work. Textiles 2030 will pick up the mantle."
The British Fashion Council, The British Retail Consortium, John Lewis, Next, Primark, Sainsbury's, Suez, Ted Baker and Tesco are among the first firms to sign up to the new Textil 2030 iniative, which was welcomed by Environment Minister Rebecca Pow, who lamented that "thousands of tonnes of unwanted clothes and textiles end up in landfill and incineration each year, wasting precious natural resources."
"That is why we must shift away from this 'take, make, use, throw' approach to a more circular system where clothes are kept in use and re-used, recycled fibres are used in new products and the climate and water impacts of the sector are reduced," she said. "Textiles 2030 will help drive this transformation, to shift to greater circularity and innovation."
WRAP's research adds to growing evidence of changing consumer fashion preferences, with polling carried out by environmental charity Hubbub in September also finding nearly two-thirds of respondents wanted the fashion industry to "slow down" by producing longer lasting and more durable clothes. Hubbub's survey also found the majority of Britons want clearer on-label information about how clothes can be recycled and more investment in skills and research to help the industry reduce its impact on the environment.
Campaigners hope growing consumer pressure can help reshape an industry which has struggled to align itself with a sustainable, low-carbon future. Research from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation has estimated that, if the industry remains on its current course, it could use more than a quarter of the carbon budget associated with a two degree global warming pathway by 2050. The sector's emissions are fuelled in part by dramatically low rates of clothing and textil recycling, with 87 per cent of material used for clothing production landfilled or incinerated after its final use, and less than one per cent recycled to produce new clothing.