A new report underscores how a variable EPR system offers a huge opportunity for the textiles sector, urging the UK government to design a system that supports and safeguards textiles manufacturing businesses, helping it to thrive by designing and selling more circular products, and by offering circular services like repair and reuse.
- The report—Agile by Design: Understanding SMEs in the WEFT Sandbox Industry Briefing – Tailoring textiles EPR to suit all businesses—emphasises that an intelligent, variable EPR fee system can drive circularity and boost sustainability in fashion and textiles.
- SMEs make up the vast majority of brands and retailers in the UK and it requires an EPR system which is achievable and effective at all levels of business.
THE PROCESS: Over 350,000 products sold were analysed in this new work to explore practical solutions for reducing costs and enhancing environmental performance.
- Producers supplied product composition and sales volume data to WEFT for analysis.
- 98% of all product/sales information supplied could be scored, the remaining 2% of products were attributed a maximum score (worst case). This was an improvement from phase one of this work with a wider sector of brands and retailers.
- All participating producers have agreed to have their anonymised results included in a summary chart that “normalises” the volume data to enable direct comparison between businesses and with other market sectors.
RECOMMENDATIONS: The UK Government should implement a textiles EPR system based on a variable tEPR fee or obligation. Data inputs from brands are highly variable but can be rapidly analysed in a flexible system.
- Producers, brands and manufacturers should assess their current product portfolio in the EPR Sandbox to determine the impact of the variable scoring system on their businesses. This will empower those businesses when engaging in EPR policy development and consultation.
- The opportunity is immense: to boost UK manufacturing, harness the deep product knowledge and sustainability expertise that SMEs already possess, and accelerate the shift towards a genuinely circular economy.
- Introducing a variable EPR system would reward innovation, support resilient local supply chains, and ensure that UK textile manufacturers remain competitive leaders in sustainability.
- Brands participating in this project would significantly benefit from a variable EPR system that rewards circular product attributes. They would receive lower EPR fees or obligations than through a fixed “per item” or weight-based “per kilo” system based on industry average performance.
- Developing a durability score within the Sandbox will help to further reward all brands where their products are designed with more complex composition to provide technical durability.
THE CONTEXT: Extended Producer Responsibility (tEPR) for clothing and textiles products is being implemented in many countries (including Australia, Spain and the Netherlands) and is under consideration by the UK government.
ABOUT: WEFT is committed to transforming the fashion and textiles industry through data-driven solutions that empower sustainability and circularity.
- WEFT devised and operates the Textiles EPR Sandbox for the fashion and textiles industry, identifying a disconnect which was holding the sector back.
- The Sandbox helps producers and policymakers understand how real data can easily drive ecomodulation for products and improvements in product environmental impacts.
- WEFT is funded by the UK Fashion & Textiles Association (UKFT) and the Circular Fashion Innovation Network (CFIN) to assess products produced and sold by a range of smaller fashion and textile brands based in the UK.
WHAT THEY SAID
British Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of the British fashion and textiles industry. They are at the leading edge of creativity, innovation and adaptability and a beacon for wider British business. This project has clearly illustrated how well fashion SMEs know their supply chains, their impacts and their sourcing to a granular level and it is this in-depth knowledge and understanding of their supply chain and circularity which will help them adapt to textiles Extended Producer Responsibility (tEPR).
— Caroline Rush
CBE / Former CEO
British Fashion Council
