At Texmari, in the Sustainable textile industry project, we investigated what sustainability means in organisations in the Finnish textile industry. There were five cases in the survey; waste law reform, environmental monitoring of organisations, use of surplus textiles, circular economy and producer responsibility. The survey was open for three weeks in the fall of 2023 and 59 organisations from the clothing industry, furniture industry, shoe manufacturing, sewing and shoemakers participated in it.
SUMMARY
Many small and medium-sized organisations need financial support to achieve the necessary recycling and circular economy goals.
Among the organisations’ environmental goals, the biggest one is reducing the amount of waste, which was chosen by 89.7%. Only a good half chose the option “to reduce the carbon footprint”. The amount of waste is a real problem, as 84.5% of the responding organisations create cutting waste, for example.
Currently, surplus textiles are disposed of either as mixed waste (49.1%) or as energy waste (31.6%). Donating textiles is also very popular. Of the organisations that participated in the survey, 64.9% chose donating as a way to dispose of surplus textiles.
60% of the respondents supported the extension of producer responsibility to the textile sector. When implemented, this would mean that organisations would have the right and obligation to organise the waste management of their products when they are taken out of use.
