American Circular Textiles Coalition Urges Biden Administration to Prioritize Sustainable Products, Services
The American Circular Textiles Coalition (ACT) wants the Biden Administration to include textiles in its plan to maximize federal purchases of sustainable products and services.
Announced on Aug. 1 as a part of Biden’s Investing in America Agenda, the proposed Sustainable Products and Services procurement rule would help the U.S. achieve net-zero emissions from federal procurement efforts by 2050. The legislation would update existing purchasing standards to ensure that the government prioritizes purchases of sustainably made goods from U.S. companies.
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Proposed through the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council, the rule would strengthen directives that federal buyers purchase sustainable products and services “to the maximum extent possible.” Federal purchasers would be subject to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Recommendations of Specifications, Standards, and Ecolabels for Federal Purchasing, which contains recommendations of products and services across 34 purchase categories. The proposed law also aims to protect public health by directing government agencies to avoid buying products that contain PFAS, the class of chemicals that persist in the environment and have been linked to health problems.
This week, ACT, a coalition of circularity-focused companies including The RealReal, ThredUp, Rent the Runway, Arrive, Fashionphile, Recurate and SuperCircle, as well as brands like H&M and Reformation, submitted public comments to the Biden administration emphasizing the need to include textile circularity as a tenet of the Sustainable Products and Services procurement rule. ACT wants to move fashion from a linear production model to a circular economy while raising public awareness and advocating for policy solutions.
Submitted by ACT executive director Rachel Kibbe, the letter extends an opportunity for the administration to work with industry stakeholders to support this this goal. Kibbe wrote that textiles should be included in the rule because of their significant impact on America’s overall waste generation and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. ACT’s data indicated that U.S. textile waste has grown by 80 percent since 2004, making it the nation’s fastest-growing waste stream. Americans and trash collectors spend billions each year to send 30 billion pounds of waste to landfills and incinerators. The collection, recycling and reuse—including repair and rental—of apparel and uniforms “can reduce these intimidating statistics,” the letter said.
“Textiles play a significant role in our daily lives, and their environmental impact and parallel opportunities often go unnoticed in crucial government decisions and actions concerning sustainability,” Kibbe said in a statement. “As the largest purchasing body in the world, the U.S. government has the influence to catalyze more sustainable options, and scale innovation for environmentally preferred alternatives that creates jobs and boosts our economy.” Kibbe said investing in textile circularity will enhance existing circular efforts and lead to new work opportunities for U.S. residents.
“I am optimistic that the Biden administration will reverse this trend of leaving textiles out of important funding opportunities and incorporate textile circularity, including recycled content, reuse, rental, and repair, into their efforts to enhance sustainable product and service procurement,” she added.
