A new season for Europe’s fashion industry
Turning fashion from a linear industry into a circular one is an ongoing, complicated process. For the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a circular economy for fashion is where clothing, shoes and accessories are used more, made to be recycled and created from recycled or renewable inputs.
European post-consumer textile waste is currently more likely to be downcycled, landfilled or incinerated rather than recycled in Europe due to a lack of financial incentive and a clear regulatory pathway — meaning the EU is discarding material it could use, while exporting environmental impacts and industrial value elsewhere. Right now, it is more affordable for producers to use virgin materials rather than recycled ones, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
In the Netherlands, the government recently awarded Reju a €135 million grant to build and operate its first industrial-scale textile Regeneration Hub in Chemelot. Reju is a textile-to-textile regeneration company focused on turning European post-consumer polyester textile waste into new high-quality recycled polyester. Once the Chemelot Regeneration Hub is up and running, the company expects to process approximately 64,000 tons of textile waste, representing 300 million items, to produce close to 40,000 tons of recycled polyester material annually.
Textile sorting is still usually done by hand in sorting centers run by non-profits. “The demand for secondhand is clearly not growing as fast as the waste, and the waste being received is of lower quality. The centers have to handle more without being able to extract the value, so they’re being overwhelmed,” says Patrik Frisk, CEO of Reju. “As the business matures over the years, and regulations come into force to help build the upstream system that is required to scale up, only then will we have a self-sufficient economy. The regulation framework has to be coordinated and without this the entire Extended Producer Responsibility infrastructure will not attract outside capital.”
Supporting locally made, circular textiles will not only help the EU pursue the Sustainable Development Goals but will also support regional manufacturing during a difficult economic time. The clock is ticking: Each EU member country must establish its textile EPR scheme by April 16, 2028, and the forthcoming Circular Economy Act is expected by the end of the year.