Establishment of CCT: Alternative producer organisation for truly sustainable textiles
Many established clothing companies prefer to do as little as possible to combat waste. That is why in 2024, FRF took the initiative to bring together textile companies with genuinely sustainable ambitions in the Circular Textile Collective, a producer organisation that challenges the status quo and calls for more 'extended producer responsibility' (EPR).
The Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system relies on producer responsibility organisations (PROs): groups that carry out statutory obligations on behalf of producers. However, producer organisations use their influence to bend policy to their will, while other stakeholders get barely any say. The aspiration of many producers to achieve as much profit as possible above all else is incompatible with the transition to a sustainable textile industry.
Our approach: a green producer responsibility organisation
We believed this had to change, and decided to do it ourselves. The Collectief Circulair Textiel (Circular Textile Collective) is the first producer organisation in Europe to be founded by an environmental organisation rather than by the industry itself. In doing so, we demonstrate that a PRO does not by definition revolve around cost control for producers, but can also put social and environmental goals first.
Unlike existing producer organisations, CCT is transparent about its financing, data, and decision-making. And it is not only producers who determine the strategic goals; collectors, recyclers, municipalities, NGOs, and social enterprises also have a say. In this way, CCT prevents the system from being redesigned by and for the parties who benefit most if little changes.
The agenda of the Collectief Circulair Textiel
Collectief Circulair Textiel wants to prevent the destruction of unsold clothing, set up well-functioning collection systems, promote reuse and repair, and stimulate new technologies for high-quality recycling. CCT works together with social enterprises that already have years of experience in clothing collection and processing.
CCT also looks at the beginning of the chain: how much clothing is actually being produced and put on the market, because the garment that is never made remains the most sustainable option.
With the Collectief Circulair Textiel, we prove that a producer organisation does not have to be an extension of the industry, but can be an instrument to genuinely improve a system. CCT is working on scaling up the collective, a more ambitious EPR, and European textile policy that goes beyond non-binding promises.
