Minister Smyth welcomes campaign encouraging circular fashion on World Circular Textiles Day
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From: Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications
- Published on: 8 October 2024
- Last updated on: 9 October 2024
Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications with special responsibility for the Circular Economy, Ossian Smyth, today launched Ireland's first official sustainable fashion campaign – to mark World Circular Textiles Day, which takes place today (Tuesday, 8 October).
World Circular Textiles Day is dedicated to exploring circularity in textiles around the world and sharing stories to inspire more sharing, re-wearing, reuse and remanufacturing along the textiles supply chain.
Key facts about textiles:
- The fashion industry is estimated to be responsible for 10% of global carbon emissions*, while only 31% of Irish people see a link between purchasing textiles and climate change**
- Textiles (including clothing) have the fourth highest impact on climate change, after food, housing and transport
- Over 100 billion new items of clothes are made every year and less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing
- Recent research from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that textiles such as clothing and household textiles make up 9% of waste in the general waste bin.
Minister Smyth said:
"Circular fashion is a priority for this government in our quest to achieve a circular economy. We want to raise awareness about the impact that our buying habits have on the environment and why we need to change our current take-make-waste approach.
"Ireland has one of the highest rates of new textiles consumption in the EU, at 53 kg per person every year. Each and every one of us can make a contribution to climate action by thinking about what we really need, whether we can rewear, share or repair in our collective efforts to reverse the trend."
Today the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications is marking World Circular Textiles Day with the launch of the 'Reverse the Trend' campaign. The campaign aims to raise awareness of alternatives to frequent purchasing of clothing and some of the environmental impacts of over-consumption of textiles. The campaign is asking people to embrace circular fashion through the simple actions of ‘Buy Less, Re-wear, Share’. Find out more about the campaign at Item was unpublished or removed
This day is celebrated around the globe, with the aim of raising awareness of the importance of circularity in textiles and with a vision towards full circularity by 2050. It seeks to celebrate the efforts of a growing community of companies, organisations and individuals actively working towards a circular textiles future.
**Textiles: National Attitudes & Behaviours Survey 2021
ENDS
Notes to the Editor
World Circular Textiles Day
World Circular Textiles Day, which takes place on 8 October every year, is about exploring circularity progress from around the world across three themes: Products and Services; Materials; and People. For more information, please see the World Circular Textiles Day website.
Government policy on textiles
Ireland is fully committed to the transition to a circular economy. Textiles is a key priority area for action to realise the government's circular economy ambitions. Our current policy includes a Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy 2020-2025 which establishes our commitment to tackle the environmental degradation caused by textiles in Ireland, in close collaboration with relevant stakeholders. It sets out measures to tackle the textile challenge including to develop a separate collection of textiles waste generated by households by 1 January 2025 in line with EU requirements; support improved data on the nature and extent of the used textile stream; promote eco-design for clothing and textiles in collaboration with Irish fashion designers and retailers and support an education and awareness campaign around textiles.
In 2022, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications established a Textiles Advisory Group as a sub-Group of the Waste Advisory Group, bringing together relevant expertise from industry, community and regulatory bodies. This group will identify key opportunities for government to promote, facilitate and enable circularity in the textiles’ ecosystem and examine the way in which textiles are designed, produced, used and discarded, moving away from a linear economy to a just, sustainable and circular textile industry. For further information see the department's website.
European policy developments on textiles
In 2022, the European Commission launched the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles, as part of the Sustainable Products Initiative. The Textiles Strategy sets a 2030 vision, whereby:
- Textile products placed on the EU market are long-lived and recyclable, to a great extent made of recycled fibres, free of hazardous substances and produced respecting social rights and the environment
- 'Fast fashion is out of fashion' – customers benefit longer from high quality and affordable textiles and re-use and repair services are widely available
- Producers take responsibility for products throughout the value chain including waste, aiming to make producers who manufacture and sell disposable goods for profit environmentally accountable for the products they place on the market