Textiles Advisory Group

In 2022, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) established a Textiles Advisory Group as a sub-Group of the Waste Advisory Group. It consists of relevant industry, community and regulatory representatives to identify opportunities to capitalise on the value of textiles present in Ireland and explore options to improve future circularity in the sector.

Gwen Cunningham, National College of Art and Design and Textiles Lead at the Circular Economy Europe, has been appointed External Chair of the Group. The Group will support Ireland in meeting its obligations under EU legislation and to work towards realising the ambition of the EU Textiles Strategy. The department seek to collaborate with designers, collectors, producers, retailers and others to support the systematic tracking and management of textiles to minimise waste and optimise circularity and to set and achieve targets for this material stream.

The department welcomes this collaborative approach to tackling the textile challenge, bringing in the relevant expertise from industry, regulatory bodies and the community and voluntary sector. The work of the Group will report to the Waste Advisory Group on an annual basis regarding its progress. In line with the Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy 2020-2025, the Textiles Advisory Group will operate until at least the end of 2025.

The Chairperson, Ms Gwen Cunningham gave an annual progress report to the Waste Advisory Group on 25 April 2024 regarding its work as per the terms of reference. See presentation below.

On Thursday 11 July, the Circular Economy Materials Management (CEMM) Division hosted a successful international webinar on Producer Responsibility in the Textiles Industry with over 150 attendees tuning in online.

This webinar is part of the 2024 work programme of the National Textiles Advisory Group. Its chief purpose was to hear from France about its experience of running a Textiles Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme for the last 15 years – what worked and what didn't work.

Assistant Secretary General (ASG) Philip Nugent opened the event and Jonathan Dunne, Administrative Officer (AO) in CEMM Division gave an update on the latest drafting developments in the EU.

Gwen Cunningham, Chair of the Textiles Advisory Group was our expert moderator, introducing our two international guests.

Valerie Boiten of the Ellen McArthur Foundation gave a presentation on 'Pushing the boundaries of EPR policy for textiles' and Maud Hardy, Managing Director of Refashion, the French producer scheme spoke on 'French textiles and footwear EPR: overview of the ambitious 2023-28 framework'.

Gwen, Valerie and Maud were then joined by Samira Nicolo of Ibec’s Retail Ireland for a really illuminating panel discussion and audience Q&A.

The key takeaway on the day was that a successful EPR requires all actors from across civil society, designers, recyclers, regulators, retailers, reuse operators and industry, working in collaboration.

Links to the webinar recordings

Video 1 - Introduction and DECC presentation

Video 2 - Presentation from Valerie Boiten, Ellen McArthur Foundation

Video 3 - Presentation from Maud Hardy, ReFashion

Video 4 - Q&A and final remarks