On 5 January 2021, the European Commission published its roadmap on an EU Strategy for Sustainable Textiles.
With over half of RREUSE’s 27 members working with used textiles, garment, leather and footwear (TGLF) and collectively managing 257 000 tonnes across Europe annually, the EU Strategy for Textiles is highly anticipated.
Undoubtedly, this initiative will also please the 75% of EU citizens who view sustainability as very or extremely important when buying fashion.
RREUSE and the 60+ signatories of the “Fair and Sustainable Textiles, European civil society strategy for sustainable TGLF” are happy to see the document mentioned in the roadmap. RREUSE is also grateful for the acknowledgement of the impact that COVID-19 had on the trade of second-hand TGLF.
Nonetheless, RREUSE would like to take this opportunity to raise the following points:
- Give priority to prevention and preparing for re-use
- Protect re-use operators of the social economy
- Voluntary approaches and new business models are not enough
Download the full publication here (PDF)
Picture credit © De Kringwinkel – Kioni Papadopoulos & Boaz Timmermans