European Outdoor Group
EOG
We are the voice of the European outdoor sector, promoting global, profitable business in a way that gives back more than we take from people and nature.
ID: 904895640207-33
Lobbying Activity
Response to Measures to reduce microplastic pollution
17 Jan 2022
The European outdoor industry is a responsible sector and is committed to addressing the unintentional release of microplastics from textiles in a proactive manner that is science and risk-based, realistic, enforceable, and proven to provide effective impact.
We support the implementation of both policy and legislative measures to reduce the environmental presence and impact of unintentionally released microplastics from textiles. However, we draw attention to the knowledge gaps mentioned by the European Commission in the call for evidence and reiterate that if measures are not developed in an impact assessed and data driven manner they could be at best ineffective, or in a worst-case scenario counterproductive from both a microplastic perspective, but also a larger sustainability agenda.
The textile industry has been working diligently over the last 4 years to develop a globally harmonised test method to systematically assess material loss from fabrics under standardised laundry conditions to achieve comparable and accurate results following concern around the reliability of early topic data. This was identified as a pre-requisite to developing feasible mitigation approaches and policy options.
This method has now been verified through interlaboratory trials and the final stages of CEN certification are underway. This places the industry in a position to scale data rapidly on the quantification of fibre shedding from textiles.
However, while the ability to quantify is a good starting point, this does not convert physical flows into environmental impact and there has yet to be reliable studies on the risk of different fibres in different environments. There are significant challenges in going from presence to impact which must be understood for every material, as well as how different materials are used in garments etc.
The European Outdoor Group, along with our members and wider network of stakeholders are committed to addressing this challenge through a number of industry initiatives but require support from the European Commission.
We have several detailed discussion points which can be found in the attached statement.
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