The Baltic states import over 90,000 tonnes of used textiles per year. One quarter of these imports comes from the Nordic countries.
The project "Towards a Textile Circulation System in the Nordic and Baltic Countries" aims to enhance concrete knowledge related to preventing and reducing textile waste generation in the Baltic Sea region, increase the capacity of stakeholders for increased collection, reuse and recycling of textiles and the development of effective policy measures for moving towards a circular economy for textiles.
By 2025 all EU member states will be obliged to separately collect used household textiles for reuse or recycling.
The Nordic countries possess several best practices, technology innovations and other solutions in the areas of textile collection, sorting, reuse and recycling that would be highly valuable for the Baltic region to adapt. The project aims to transfer Nordic knowledge, create common understanding of the status of discarded textiles in the region, create a platform for Nordic-Baltic stakeholders to meet and help promote collaboration and partnerships with a view towards circular economy of textiles in the Nordic-Baltic region.
During the project implemantation period a research was made and the report «Post-consumer textile circularity in the Baltic countries: current status and recommendations for the future» was published on September 2020. The report concludes with a call for significant action from both policymakers and industry stakeholders. The research was carried out by Stockholm Environment Institute in Tallinn, Estonia, Green Liberty in Latvia, PlanMiljø in Denmark along with Textale and KTU APINI in Lithuania.
During the project, key stakeholders within the region that are involved with garment sale, collection, reuse and recycling, shared their experiences and discussed the opportunities for sector development and transitioning the Nordic-Baltic region towards circular economy at:
Conference “Used textiles: waste or value” Tallinn, on September 12, 2018
Discussion “Used textiles: waste or value?” at conversation festival Lampa, Cesis,on June 29, 2019
The conference “Policy measures for textile circularity”, Riga, on September 9, 2020
The conference “Nordic-Baltic Cooperation for Textile Circularity”, Vilnius, on January 28-29, 2020
Within the framework of the project, recommendations for policy solutions were developed to facilitate the transition to a circular economy in the textile industry in the Nordic and Baltic region.
The project was implemented form 2018 until 2020.
