On Tuesday 9 November, SMEunited and Small Business Standards published their recommendations to ensure that the SMEs they represent fully benefit from the future EU strategy for sustainable textiles as announced in the 2nd Action Plan for Circular Economy (see EUROPE 12720/9).
Noting that the European textile sector is predominantly composed of SMEs, 88.8% of which are micro-enterprises, they believe that sustainable product design, support for circular models, the establishment of local recycling infrastructures and the development of European standards remain the key to a more sustainable textile.
The two associations are calling for the whole value chain to be taken into account to ensure that the textile industry recovers from the Covid-19 crisis in a sustainable and competitive way, but also for a clear plan to eliminate the factors that prevent SMEs from moving to more sustainable business models. The future strategy should therefore provide tools, favourable framework conditions and technical support to companies that are facing difficulties in implementing greener business models.
The associations have recommended the application of sustainability criteria when designing products to ensure that the end products are used for a long time, that they can be recycled and therefore help to reduce waste.
In addition, European standards would support SMEs in the textile supply chain. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)