Textile is everywhere and has many forms. It is indispensable in our lives, but we do throw away 17 kilos of textile per person every year. This converts to around 305,000 tonnes per year in the Netherlands. Only 1% of this is turned into new textiles. These figures give food for thought and show that something clearly needs to change. What is needed to make the textile chain more sustainable and circular? And what opportunities does this offer specifically for Rotterdam and the region? The answers to these questions are provided in three substantive podcasts developed in collaboration with four sorters in the Rotterdam region: Erdotex, Boer Group, TexNL and ReShare, value chain expert Hilde van Duijn, journalist Dore van Duivenbode, the municipality of Rotterdam and BlueCity.
Rotterdam has the opportunity to become a raw material supplier of a circular textile industry
Podcast Resetting Fashion unravels the complex textile chain by talking to four large textile sorters in the Rijnmond region and chain expert Hilde van Duijn.
Resetting Fashion
Value chain expert Hilde van Duijn has been researching discarded textiles worldwide since 2018 and brings parties together to explore solutions. Van Duijn: “55% of discarded textiles ends up directly in the garbage can and are incinerated. The remaining textiles finds its way to a sorting company.” Hilde not only spoke to sorters in the Netherlands, but also traveled abroad. The second hand textile market is a global market. “only 5% of the discarded textiles are suitable for reuse on the Dutch market. Most of it ends up in Eastern Europe, Pakistan and African countries such as Ghana or Cameroon.”
In the podcast Resetting Fashion (English), journalist Dore van Duivenbode dives into the world of discarded textiles together with Simon Smedinga (director ReShare), Mert Ozturk (director Erdotex), Jorik Boer (director Boer Group), Jan-Maarten Zeldenrust (director TexNL) and Hilde van Duijn to provide insights in the chain and its challenges and possible solutions. The three episodes Setting the scene, Wasted threads and Weaving new patterns can now be listened to on all podcast channels.
A circular textile chain
The amount of collected textiles will only increase in the coming years, but due to the decreasing demand for second-hand textiles worldwide, in combination with the deteriorating quality of the textiles, the share of non-rewearable items is growing. Sorting non-reausable textiles cost the sorters more than it yields. With the right interventions, the sorting of textiles for the region can be maintained and Rotterdam could even grow into a significant supplier of raw materials for a circular textile chain. By investing in a new infrastructure for sorting textiles based on fiber composition, the non-rewearable textiles can be sold at competitive market prices as raw material for fiber-to-fiber production. Investing in new infrastructure in a sector with small margins and surrounded by great uncertainties cannot be expected from textile sorters alone. The entire chain is needed to change the textile chain. From designers, producers, collectors, sorters, government to consumers. Four leading sorters from the Rotterdam region still have a business case for sorting textiles in the region, but they need to see that change is needed and are (together) actively looking for possible solutions.
Simon Smedinga: “Design for circularity/sustainability. Producers becoming responsible for design and discarding. So the front matches the end of the chain. Designers should be more mindful of the materials they use. Design for recycling. That excludes certain materials. You need to take into account: reusable as a garment but also as material.”
Jorik Boer: “More information for consumers would be good to understand what sorters do. That makes them better recyclers.”
Mert Ozturk: “A trade ban, forbidding unsorted items to leave the EU, would help. Secondly, some sort of subsidy from the EPR fund, because we can’t have a business case in the long run without help. Because costs are rising and quality of feedstock is decreasing.”
Jan-Maarten Zeldenrust: “Right now we believe in automated sorting. It’ll do a better job than people can in terms of identifying material compositions. New technologies need perfect feedstock material compositions. 100% cotton for instance. Automated sorting can identify this perfectly, people cannot.”
Opportunities for the Rotterdam region
As mentioned, the enormous mountain of discarded textiles also offers opportunities for Rotterdam and the region. Rotterdam is the largest textile import and export port in Europe. That is also why more than half of the Dutch textile sorters are based in Rotterdam and surroundings. Virpi Heybroek, Strategic Advisor for Textiles at the municipality of Rotterdam: “If we were able to sort the textiles properly in Rotterdam according to material type/fiber composition, then convert them here into fibers for new textiles. Some of them could also be given a destination in our own region. This will generate jobs and income.” Hilde adds: “At the moment, only cotton and wool are recyclable and there are no facilities to, for example, also reuse polyester by the means of chemical recycling. The technology is already there, we just lack the funds to realize them in the Netherlands. The government can make the difference here. Our dream of realizing a circular factory in Rotterdam where we can turn many types of textile into raw materials will hopefully come a step closer after today.”
Building a circular textile chain
Are you a sorter, designer, a large fashion chain, investor or do you have a company in this sector, and do you want to change the fashion industry and help build a circular textile chain in Rotterdam? We would like to get to know you. Please send an email to resettingfashion@bluecity.nl.