• To know the truth of climate change, to recognise its impact on our daily lives, is no longer relegated to references buried in scientific journals. People around the world, especially in the Mediterranean region, are intimately aware of the effects of increased GHG emissions and pollution. These are the signals to realise climate justice; inspiration to act now to progress towards a just and low-carbon society. Could it be that this much-needed transition could actually be beautiful?
• MedWaves is actively supporting the integration of the circular economy for sustainable production and consumption as an important tool to map a path to achieving a collective movement for climate actions. Turning to the world of fashion, we are connecting and learning how to take specific steps towards shared goals.  

MedWaves offers both action and experience to a collective effort to move towards a just, circular transition to a sustainable future. Representing one region of the world, MedWaves is a regional activity centre supporting transformation through the promotion of Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) activities. The centre is in a unique and privileged position to be able to engage with, and respond to, climate issues by serving both the Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), and legally operating under the Catalan government’s Agència de Residus de Catalunya.

Over the last decade, the centre has established a successful hub of expertise to serve all stakeholders, recognising that each actor is critical in the collective movement towards sustainability. Maintaining a focus on promoting and enhancing eco-innovative sustainable business models, MedWaves establishes an enabling environment for green, circular, zero-waste, low-carbon, and non-toxic economies to grow and flourish. Stimulating and sustaining this transition requires multi-stakeholder engagement. Individuals engaged in policy, business, finance and civil society all have a crucial role to play. MedWaves navigates opportunities and works with a strong sensibility that we ~Grow from What We Know~.  The centre supports meaningful engagement among stakeholders, raising awareness from producer to consumer of shared challenges and shared solutions. 

The Circular Context 

The call for a transition to a low-carbon society is clear; it is loud…  but does it resonate? Do people understand how to make the much-needed link between understanding conceptually that there is a need to make change and the actual tangible steps that can be taken to do so? In the context of climate action, the energy sector is often the focus of discussions. Indeed, addressing the way we produce and consume energy would encompass over half of global greenhouse emissions. Yet, even resolving half of the problem will not be enough to eliminate the threats already reaching the lives of many. Working through the circular economy and specifically, the textile industry, holds untapped potential to introduce and sustain sustainable practices.  

The EU has pledged to try to achieve a circular economy by 2050 under the Green Deal. As part of this plan, there is a directive to reduce textile waste and increase the life cycle and recycling of textiles. MedWaves, aligned with the ongoing focus on supporting small-and-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Mediterranean region, has set focus on the textile industry to help realise progress. Specifically, MedWaves programming seeks to identify the business conditions in which the circular economy can flourish.  

This aspiration requires approaching the topic with clear interest, creativity, and resolve. Several important advances have been made through the culmination of experiences in the region and shared through several publications. The Working Paper on the contribution of circular economy to climate action explores the relationship between Circular Economy, Sustainable Business Models (SBM), and Climate Change Mitigation (CCM), as well as the empirical evidence, social aspects, and research gaps of the nexus using a systematic literature review of publications, interviews to key stakeholders and practitioners, with an analysis of key cases. The Guide to Best Available Practices in Circular Economy for the textile sector helps equip companies with the tools and knowledge necessary to implement sustainable and circular improvement strategies effectively. By providing comprehensive guidance and insights into the most effective techniques and practices, this guide aims to empower businesses to adopt environmentally responsible and economically viable approaches throughout their operations. 

The textile sector provides high levels of employment, generating USD 1.5 trillion in revenue globally (1), yet contributes significantly to the climate crisis and pollution.  To achieve global climate goals, the textile industry must be addressed and adapted to be circular so that emission reductions can be realised. According to the Circular Economy as an Enabler for Responsible Banking Circular Solutions to Achieve Climate Targets in the Textile Sector publication by UNEP FI: “Moving to circular textile business models not only offers significant potential to decarbonise the sector, it could also generate USD 700 billion in economic value by 2030 (UNEP, 2023).” It is clear that the circular economy is an enabling factor for climate mitigation.  

Waste2Fashion: Developing a pilot circular system for post-consumer textile waste in the Mediterranean

Right now, every second, a completely full truck of textiles is sent to the landfill or to be burned (2). This challenge presents opportunities: the EU-funded Waste2Fashion project, under the umbrella of the Interreg Next Med Programme, addresses the challenge of post-consumer textile waste in Spain, Egypt, Tunisia, Italy and Lebanon with the opportunity to bring together local partners focused on social purposes and pilot projects that improve capacities to recycle post-consumer textile wastes with emerging technologies. The project facilitates a transition to a circular and resource efficient economy by supporting the integration of three key sustainability models into the Mediterranean textile value chain: 1) design for waste reduction and disassembly 2) collection and sorting; and 3) recycling and upcycling, demonstrating their technical, financial, social and environmental benefits. 

Globally, over 100,000 million pieces of clothing are sold every year, and production has doubled in the last decade alone. However, less than 1% of global textile waste is recycled back into the fashion sector, with most post-consumer items ending up in incinerators or in landfill. Within this global problem, the five territories involved do not yet have recycling and re-use practices and processes in place to effectively address the environmental impact created by a linear fashion industry. The project potentially provides the necessary intervention to transition towards the ultimate goal of minimising or eliminating final disposals following the “polluter pays” principle (for the EU Member States) and waste hierarchy principles for all and anticipates upcoming EU regulations on textiles waste and recycling. 

Waste2Fashion will deliver two pilot projects in Beirut, Cairo, Catalonia, Monastir and Tuscany to collect, re-use and recycle and to prevent and revalorise post-consumer textile waste. The waste management and treatment activities help address the challenges of end-of-life textile recycling and will be comprised of 4 pillars: 

• Local disposal and recollection infrastructure;  
• Technology transfer of small-scale units to process garments into recyclable materials; 
• Development of market infrastructures for the new treated materials;  
• Technical and financial assistance for local commercial exploitation. 

The waste reduction and revalorisation activities focus on increasing the ability of designers and start-ups to reduce waste in the design phase and to develop circular initiatives for recycled materials. The cross-border Eco-design Academy will build the capacity of 60 designers to contribute to waste-reduction in the design phase and to develop a circular business model. The cross-border Acceleration Lab will support the development of 10 economic initiatives that make use of recycled materials in their product design, including those produced by the waste management pilot, optimising industrial symbiosis. Initiatives will be supported with a range of business support services, including access to finance. The holistic project model, including results and learnings, alongside policy recommendations will be disseminated across the region, providing an actionable solution for policymakers and sector leaders to address the impacts of post-consumer textile waste. 

The project will contribute to implementing Barcelona Convention and UNEP/MAP’s policies and strategies (e.g. the MSSD & Regional SCP Action Plan) by promoting the transition to a green and circular economy via the application of circular principles in post-consumer textile waste management. It aligns with the EU Circular Action Plan mandate to extend producer responsibility (addressed in the Academy) and sets requirements for using secondary raw materials. It aligns with the upcoming EU Strategy for sustainable and circular textiles, which will aim to reduce and recycle post-consumer textile waste. 

During the International Day of Zero Waste, Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) made a clear call: “Unsustainable fashion is aggravating the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature, land and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste. We need to focus on a circular economy approach that values sustainable production, re-use and repair. By working together, consumers, industry and governments can support genuinely durable fashion and help reduce our fashion footprint.”   

By revalorising textile waste, the project reduces resource needs, lowering GHG emissions associated with garment production, use, and disposal, thereby paving the way for net-zero emissions and mitigating climate change impacts in the Mediterranean. This aligns with the UFM Ministerial Declaration on Environment and Climate Action and the EU Green Deal. The SCP National Plans of Egypt, Tunisia and Lebanon, the Circular Economy Strategy of Spain, and Italy’s efforts toward circularity will benefit from the sustainable support provided to national organisations involved in textile waste collection and recycling. This support will aid in developing their sustainability strategies and assist designers and start-ups centred around textile waste valorisation. 

Exciting developments ahead—stay tuned as the project gets ready to take off!

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(1) https://www.unepfi.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/PRB_CE-nexus_textiles-supplement.pdf

(2) https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/api/files/attachment/863182/EU_Greendeal_Circular_economy_en.pdf

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