Shrink your wardrobe! Make clothes more durable

The EPP Group wants to make sure Europeans waste fewer clothes in the future. "We produce too many cheap and non-durable clothes. We want to change that. The European textile sector must become the leading sustainable sector in the world", said Pernille Weiss MEP, the EPP Group’s lead negotiator on a new European Textile Strategy, ahead of the vote on the plans in plenary later today.

"Every citizen in the EU produces 12 kilograms of waste per year because of textiles. On average, we only wear our textile pieces 7 or 8 times before we send them to the waste stream. The textile sector in total emits more CO2 emissions than the car industry. There is an extremely high potential to do better in the sector and reduce its carbon footprint", warned Weiss.

"To make this work, it is crucial that the Member States, together with researchers and industry, create such an environment that most innovative and sustainable textile industries stay, grow and produce in Europe", she added.

"Right now, we are at a crossroads. Due to a huge production of cheap, fossil fuel based textiles such as polyester or nylon, we are running wild in consumerism. But this must be mitigated. If we succeed in making sure that companies produce fewer and more quality products, we will be able to use them for a longer period", concluded Weiss.

The Textile Strategy is a central piece of the European Commission’s Circular Economy Action Plan. Textiles are the fourth largest category of pollutants after food, housing and transport. It is estimated that less than 1% of all textiles worldwide are recycled into new textiles.