Municipal textile waste: collection, reuse and recycling. Where do we stand?

The EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles, published in March 2022, addresses the issues of textile production, consumption and post-consumption in the context of the Circular Economy Action Plan and the European Industrial Strategy.
Textile products are very present in daily life and urgent action is needed as their impact on the environment continues to grow and represents the fourth highest impact on the environment and climate change, with high consumption of water, soil, primary raw materials and greenhouse gas emissions.

The Commission's 2030 vision for the textile sector is based on durable, repairable and recyclable textiles, with recycled fibre content, free of hazardous substances, produced in compliance with social and environmental rights and certified by the introduction of the 'digital passport'.

The European Institution are also working on harmonized rules for EPR schemes to be implemented in all Member States to improve separate collection and incentivise circular business models that facilitate reuse, repair and recycling.

Session Chair

Andrea Fluttero, Unirau Assoambiente

Programme

Municipalities and collection cooperatives
Comparation of different types of collection (on the road, door-to-door, selective)
Franco Bonesso, ANCI - National Association of Italian Municipalities 
Bernardo Piccioli Fioroni, Utilitalia
Karina Bolin, Humana people to people 

Selection companies
Human Competence, Technology and Markets. Strengths and weaknesses of the Campania district
Joseph Valletti, ARIU - Used Garment Recoverers Association 
Carmine Esposito, UNIRAU - Union of used clothing collection, recycling and reuse companies 

The selection companies in Tunisia
A virtuous history of commercial relationships for the valorization of municipal textile waste
Hamdi Kannou, CONNECT Tunisie 

African Second Hand Markets
Fernando Hin Junior, ACB - Associação Comercial da Beira (Mozambico)

Recycling technologies
Technological burdens and REACH compliance issues for fiber-to-fiber textile recycling
Andrea Falchini and Marco Ruzzante, Next Technology Prato 

Updates to the regulatory framework
Luca Proietti, General Director of Italian Ministry of Environment and Energy Security 

Conclusions