Requirements for handling textiles after collection need to be clarified

Wargön Innovation has responded to the government's memorandum on the implementation of the EU requirement that textiles be collected separately from other waste. The requirement is part of the European Green Deal and the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles and addresses issues related to the production and consumption of textiles.

Wargön Innovation has no objections to the basic principle of the memorandum's proposal that the municipalities be given responsibility for the collection of textiles. It is a responsibility they already have today and it is difficult at present to see other suitable alternatives. However, we believe that the proposals as a whole are insufficient to create a circular and credible management of collected textiles.

• The requirements for the handling of textiles at the collection stage need to be significantly clarified
• The subsequent steps in the circular chain need to be clarified now and not wait for future decision-making processes in the EU
• In addition to textiles, the collection responsibility should also include the collection of shoes

The requirements for collection

The collection of textiles differs significantly from the collection of other waste fractions such as glass, cardboard or newsprint. While these fractions mainly enter a recycling process, the objective of textile collection is different. We share the European Commission's ambition to keep textiles as high up the waste stream as possible and thus primarily for reuse. If this is to be possible, a new form of infrastructure is needed to preserve the value of the textile from collection until it is back on the market.

Collected textiles must be kept free of dirt, moisture and strong odors that risk reducing or completely removing their value. The memorandum also proposes that textiles should be sorted out, stored separately from other items and collected separately. The report also proposes that municipalities should provide information to households about the importance of reusing textiles whenever possible. Wargön Innovation believes that the requirements are insufficient and need to be much more specific. "Collecting textiles is one thing, but where the textiles will go afterwards is the big question. We see a great risk that we build a system that leads to textiles being collected for the most part but still risking going to incineration, or that we build fast roads to material recycling and thus greatly reduce the value of the textile and the circular benefit of textile collection.

Risk of being left without a system to manage the collected textiles

Specific requirements must be developed for the management of collected textiles if the memorandum's stated aim of aiming for circular management of textile waste by preparing it for reuse or recycling is to be achieved. In the memorandum, the government proposes that Sweden should wait for any new EU requirements on how textile waste should be treated before making changes to national legislation. This is not enough. The collector must be able to categorize the collected material and explain how to handle it and what happens in the next step. Sorting must have a first step of separation for reuse to be in line with the waste hierarchy and overall EU targets. Exporting unsorted textiles to unclear treatment is not acceptable.

The provisions in the memorandum's proposal are proposed to enter into force on January 1, 2025. If the handling and sorting stages are not regulated in parallel, but await processes within the EU, Sweden will collect significant volumes of textiles in 2025 but lack systems and solutions for handling and processing the collected material.

Sweden can lead the way

Sweden is among the leading nations in textile circular innovation. Strategies and concrete actions with government initiatives and support are now needed to maintain and strengthen this position. We want to see Sweden take the lead and be a driving force within the EU when it comes to building up the circular management of textiles. Such objectives require a holistic approach and a coherent circular textile system. It also requires conditions and frameworks that are built up and become dynamic and development-oriented.

The conditions created must be based on and acknowledge that the market for new uses of textiles is changing in terms of the preferences of second-hand consumers, but also that innovations in sorting, valuation, material recycling, digitization and the development of completely new markets for textile materials are changing the conditions. Completely new business models are being developed in the textile sector and systems and legal conditions must not prevent this, but the absence of and/or uncertainty about future conditions also hinders the development of and investment in new solutions and new business models.

The EU predicts that for every 1000 tons of textiles collected for reuse, 35 new jobs will be created. In the EU, we throw away around 11 kilograms of textiles per person per year, which could mean many good jobs in Sweden and the possibility of a truly circular industry.

A new textile industry

At Wargön Innovation, we are currently working to develop an efficient sorting and valuation system to handle large quantities of collected textiles. We already know that a large part of the textile collected is in good condition, so it should not primarily be recycled, but we will ensure that it has as high a value as possible by, for example, providing the conditions for reuse and redesign. The right textile goes to the right place. We can achieve this by creating sorting facilities that, with the help of technical solutions such as AI, can work on a large scale and efficiently.

Taking care of discarded textiles is complex because several circular flows need to run in parallel. For garments that cannot be resold as second hand, it may involve updating garments, perhaps with a new zipper or a repaired seam, or redesigning where new garments are created from existing textiles. It is also about finding new value chains, where residual material or textile waste from one production can become a valuable raw material in someone else's production. Material recycling is also part of future textile management, where fabric is broken down to create new yarn, new fabric and finally a new product. Circular textiles are so much more than recycling, where used textiles are ground down or processed to become new textiles.

In conclusion, Wargön Innovation would like to emphasize that environmental benefits do not arise solely through the establishment of nationwide textile collection systems. It is crucial that the later stages of circular management of textiles are also established at the same time as the collection systems. This is for both environmental and economic reasons, but also very much to give credibility to the benefits of leaving textiles for collection.