How can a future EPR-scheme for textiles work when many different stakeholders must contribute to the same system?
This is a key question in the project “Extended Producer Responsibility for Textiles: Towards Circular Value Chains”, owned by NORSIRK and managed by the Norwegian Fashion & Textile Agenda (NF&TA). The aim is to develop an EPR scheme that promotes circular value chains and innovation.
The project is now approaching its halfway point. Through mapping exercises, interviews, analyses and dialogue with stakeholders across the entire value chain, we are working on the infrastructure that will support the EPR scheme, collection and downstream solutions, industry engagement and innovation, as well as regulatory development and Nordic cooperation.
One topic that has become increasingly evident throughout the process is collaboration.
An Extended Producer Responsibility scheme for textiles cannot be developed by producers or producer responsibility organisations alone.
When textiles move from products to used products and onward to reuse, repair, sorting and material recycling, a wide range of stakeholders depend on one another. Decisions made at one stage of the value chain affect costs, quality and opportunities at the next.
For this reason, the project has from the outset been supported by a broadly composed reference group, including representatives from producers and textile suppliers, municipalities and waste management companies, collectors, reuse and repair actors, sorting and recycling facilities, research institutions and producer responsibility organisation.
When the reference group met on 1 September 2006, collaboration was the main theme. Participants worked on identifying how stakeholders throughout the value chain depend on one another, where critical interfaces arise, and in which areas closer cooperation may be needed within a future EPR scheme.
As part of this work, the project has begun developing a collaboration map for the textile value chain. The map is intended to illustrate the needs and interdependencies between different stages of the value chain and provide a stronger basis for understanding where collaboration may be necessary for an EPR scheme to function effectively in practice.
The objective is not for all stakeholders to do the same things, nor for a single solution to fit the entire value chain. Rather, the work focuses on understanding what needs to be better connected and how a future EPR scheme can facilitate this.
Insights from the meeting and the ongoing development of the collaboration map are now being incorporated into the next phase of the project.
In the months ahead, findings from interviews, analyses and reference group activities will increasingly be translated into concrete deliverables.
Work on collection and downstream solutions continues, while the project will also develop an innovation strategy outlining how the EPR scheme can support technological development, new solutions and more circular value chains.
The project is also closely monitoring developments in Norwegian and European legislation. At the same time, Nordic cooperation is being strengthened. In September, the project participants travelled to Borås, where Norwegian, Swedish and Danish stakeholders compared the development of textile EPR systems in the three countries and discussed opportunities for cross-border collaboration.
Both textile markets and value chains are international. A future Norwegian EPR scheme must therefore work within a Norwegian context while remaining aligned with developments across Europe.
The work carried out so far highlights an important premise of the project: a successful EPR scheme is not only about financing and managing textiles once they become waste. It is also about enabling stakeholders and the different parts of the value chain to work better together.
