Sustainable and Circular Textiles | Dialogue with Young Europeans
Introduction
Did you know that the textiles industry is one of the most polluting in Europe?
We need an urgent action to find a solution to this great problem. It causes more and more pollution every year. In fact, EU consumption of textiles has on average the fourth highest impact on the environment and climate.
This topic was addressed during a Youth Dialogue organised by the European Commission. A group of 14 young designers, influencers, and environmental activists participated in the event.
Virginijus Sinkevičius, EU Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries led the event. It was an opportunity for dialogue during which participants learned about the topic and shared their opinions.
The Youth Dialogue
This event played a significant role in inaugurating the Commission’s “ReSet the Trend – #ReFashionNow”. This campaign’s primary objective is to increase public awareness regarding the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles. It is useful to put emphasis on its various benefits for the environment, society, economy, and health.
The campaign extends an invitation to citizens, especially the youth of Europe, to shift away from the culture of fast fashion.
How to see the dialogue
The dialogue has been very useful to promote the values of environmental sustainability and spread awareness about this topic.
At the end of the dialogue, the participants outlined the following objectives for the coming years:
- The economic sustainability of the textile industry’s ecological transition: It is important to put in place facilities and financial instruments to promote sustainable innovation and to cater for the potential loss of competitiveness of the textile industry.
- Conceptions about sustainable fashion that need to change: there are a lot of misconceptions such as fashion is superficial, and that sustainable fashion is too expensive, not affordable, or not aesthetic enough. Young people have a key role to play here, to appeal to and understand the needs of different generations.
- Ways of production of companies outside the EU, compliance with human rights and environmental standards: environmental and social sustainability must go hand in hand. The EU Textiles strategy has to address challenges linked to human and labour rights and the EU must work with non-EU countries and companies to make sure they respect fundamental human and labour rights.
The aims of the project
If you have not been able to attend the event but are interested in deepening the topic, you can watch the video of the initiative on the official website.
Read also