Avery Dennison and Texaid Collaborate on Textile Recycling Ahead of EU Rule Changes
Getting a jump on changes in the European Union’s textile waste regulations, digital identification specialist Avery Dennison has announced a collaboration with Texaid, specialists in collecting, sorting, repairing, reselling and recycling used textiles.
The two companies aim to improve traceability of garments through sorting and recycling using Avery Dennison’s Atma.io connected product cloud platform. It carries vital fiber information that will facilitate Texaid’s processing of the apparel into the appropriate resale or recycling channels.
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Only 1 percent of Europe’s 7 million tons of textile waste gets recycled and only 35 percent gets collected separately. The EU is aiming for a complete overhaul of the industry by 2030, under the Strategy for Sustainable Textiles regulations which require fashion items to have longer lives, be easy to repair and recycle and free of hazardous substances.
There will be mandatory minimums for recycled content and each garment will carry a Digital Product Passport containing information on its sustainability. EU regulators will therefore be able to impose disclosure and accountability requirements on what happens to clothes that are no longer wearable or have been discarded.
“The fashion industry needs answers and it needs action,” said Michael Colarossi, Avery Dennison’s vice president, innovation, product line management and sustainability, apparel. “This technology-driven approach will enable textile recycling while also reducing processing time, driving down costs and increasing capacity.”
“We are showing today how technology can scale up processing so that we can generate the volumes of high-quality feedstock the industry is going to need,” said Martin Böschen, CEO of Texaid, which is based in Switzerland. “Existing textile recycling facilities will be woefully inadequate if they remain small scale.”
Ohio-based Avery Dennison has devised digital care labels that use a scannable QR code powered by the same Atma.io technology for the Swijin line of performance wear. It carries the garment’s history and sustainability story as well as fiber content and care instructions. It also gives professional recyclers the requisite information for the correct recycling of any garment.
The European Union is on track to implement legislation governing textile waste that could be finalized by this time next year. There are currently 16 pieces of new legislation waiting to be passed, some of which are designed to ensure that consumers have all the info they need to recycle them properly. The carrier of the info will likely be a scannable QR code, like that used by Swijin, which will serve as a digital product passport.
