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Progress towards preventing waste in Europe

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Progress towards preventing waste in Europe
Year: 2021
Language: English
Country: Multi-country
The case of textile waste prevention

Waste prevention is the best waste management policy option, according to the waste hierarchy, the EU's main rule for the environmental ranking of waste management policies. Its main objective is to reduce waste generation, the environmental impacts of waste management and the hazardousness of the waste generated. This report aims to assess progress towards waste prevention measures' main objective of decoupling, scoping the EU as a whole by synthesising information from national waste prevention measures, targets, indicators and targeted waste streams. 

The second part of this report examines the potential of waste prevention policies to address the growing quantities of textile wastes. Textile is a very suitable candidate for such policies, as it is a fast-growing waste stream, based on unsustainable consumption patterns, driven by phenomena such as fast fashion. This suitability is increasingly being recognised by EU policymakers, as the textile industry is a key sector for applying circular economy measures, a key part of which is waste prevention.