The textile and fashion industry is resource-intensive, operates in a linear paradigm, and needs a serious overhaul to work within planetary boundaries, including moving towards circular economy. Promoting the transition to a circular and resource-efficient textile ecosystem requires cooperation and effort from all levels of actors, from industry to consumers to municipalities and EU policy. THREADs project seeks to connect textile-related actors in Northern periphery and Arctic regions, who face unique challenges in moving towards circular economy due to i.e. sparse population and long distances.
Improving all stages of the textile circular economy, including textile waste collection, sorting, reuse, repair, and related policy development, requires decision-making that is informed by reliable data and a thorough understanding of local and national conditions. Despite the substantial volumes of textile waste generated across EU Member States, research on the composition and characteristics of textile waste remains limited. In the absence of robust data, identifying the most suitable end uses for used textiles is challenging, often resulting in inefficiencies and difficulties in coordination.
To augment the current lack of data on the composition of the textile waste collected at THREADs project partner regions, two municipal waste management companies, Kiertokaari Ltd from Oulu, Finland and Luleå Miljöresurs LTD (Lumire AB), Sweden, conducted a series of studies on the composition of the textile waste collected from households in their regions.
