The H&M Foundation is calling for the global textile industry to urgently adopt circular economy principles, including recycling, reuse, and slow fashion, to mitigate its substantial environmental footprint. The call comes in response to the Circularity Gap Report Textiles, a comprehensive study funded by the foundation and produced by Circle Economy. This report underscores the pressing need for systemic changes within the textile industry to address its environmental challenges.
Key Findings and Industry Recommendations
The report reveals alarming statistics about the textile sector’s sustainability practices. Of the 3.25 billion tonnes of materials consumed by the industry each year, a mere 0.3% is sourced from recycled materials. Moreover, fossil-fuel-based synthetic fibres make up 70% of the raw materials used in textile production, contributing to significant environmental degradation.
The report emphasizes four primary recommendations to drive change in the industry:
- Reduce Production Volumes: The industry must address overproduction, reconfigure production cycles, and minimize resource consumption to align with sustainability goals.
- Expand Environmental Focus Beyond Carbon Reduction: While carbon emissions are a priority, the industry must also consider broader environmental impacts, particularly water ecosystems, which are heavily affected by textile production processes.
- Ensure a Socially Just Circular Transition: Transitioning to a circular economy should also ensure fair labor practices, decent wages, and improved working conditions across the textile sector.
- Coordinate Action Across Key Sectors: The report stresses the importance of coordinated efforts across science, technology, policy, and finance to effectively transition the textile sector to a circular economy.
Circularity: A Path Forward for Sustainability
Christiane Dolva, Head of Innovation, Research & Demonstration at the H&M Foundation, emphasized the importance of the findings, stating, “This report provides the textile industry with actionable insights. While circularity alone isn’t a complete solution, it is a powerful tool for driving meaningful change and supporting industry-wide transformation.”
The H&M Foundation has committed to using these findings to guide its own decarbonisation efforts in the textile industry, aiming to reduce the sector’s carbon footprint and its impact on water ecosystems, biodiversity, and climate change. The report draws on the Planetary Boundaries Framework to measure impact across several environmental categories, including climate change, water scarcity, and biodiversity loss.
The Urgent Need for Action
The textile industry’s environmental toll is significant, with textiles contributing over 5% to marine eutrophication, which results in harmful algae blooms, and 3.5% to global water scarcity. Key textile-producing countries like China and the United States are central to these impacts, with the U.S. exhibiting per capita environmental footprints five to eight times higher than the global average, according to the report.
Hilde van Duijn, Managing Director of Circle Economy Foundation, described the Circularity Gap Report Textiles as “groundbreaking,” noting that it provides the first in-depth analysis of circularity within the textile sector. Van Duijn added, “Only through concrete, scalable actions can the industry contribute meaningfully to a sustainable future.”
Looking Ahead: Transforming the Textile Value Chain
The report highlights the urgent need to overhaul the textile value chain, transitioning away from a linear production model towards a more sustainable circular economy. With the textile sector responsible for significant environmental harm, the need for comprehensive and collaborative action has never been more critical.
The H&M Foundation, alongside Circle Economy and other key stakeholders, hopes this report will serve as a call to action for the entire industry. By embracing circular economy practices, the textile sector can drastically reduce its environmental impact, improve working conditions, and ultimately contribute to a more sustainable global economy.
This shift towards circularity is seen as a crucial step in mitigating the environmental damage caused by the fashion industry, which remains one of the most resource-intensive and polluting sectors globally. By integrating sustainability into every stage of the production and consumption cycle, the textile industry can reduce its reliance on virgin resources and promote a more responsible, equitable approach to manufacturing.
As the sector faces increasing pressure from consumers, policymakers, and environmental organizations to adopt sustainable practices, the H&M Foundation’s support for this report underscores the foundation’s commitment to driving positive change in the fashion industry. The recommendations outlined in the Circularity Gap Report Textiles present a clear roadmap for the industry to follow as it works to minimize its environmental impact and transition to a circular, more sustainable future.
Image by Nissy-KITAQ, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
