French boost hopes for textile producer responsibility in UK

Speaking to letsrecycle.com following a meeting of the Bureau of International Recycling in Brussels last month, TRA president Terry Ralph said that the French textile sector had managed to get a law through the first hurdle in the French National Assembly for a recycling levy on new clothes.

The French proposal could see small recycling fees added to the sale of new clothing

Mr Ralph said that if France adopted the bill, perhaps even by the end of the year, he expected the idea could be taken up by the European Parliament, and possibly therefore the UK.

Under the French proposal, the government would draw “contributions” of around a thousandth of the sale price of new clothing from producers and importers.

Such a scheme in this country would provide valuable income to the British textile recycling industry, which has suffered from spiralling textile costs and competition from cheap labour in Eastern Europe (see letsrecycle.com story).

The TRA president said: “We are very pleased that the French textile reclamation industry has managed to get a reading through the French National Assembly to try to introduce a levy on new clothing sold to fund recovery of used clothing in France. If this bill is successful in France we could expect that its implications will be taken up by the European Parliament.”

He added: “If producer responsibility is workable in France we would like to see a scheme in the UK.”

Funding
Under the French scheme, producer funding would be distributed to commercial textile companies, charities and “socio-economic” groups by an environmental body on the basis of “objective criteria”.

At the BIR meeting at the end of October, the plans raised concerns that the money may benefit social enterprises and charities to the detriment of private sector textile recyclers.

However, Mr Ralph, who is also managing director of textile recycling firm Terimpex UK, argued that mistrust between traditional textile recyclers, charity organisations and socio-economic groups had “to be demolished.”

France has currently set up a working group to discuss the bill and it is due to be represented in Parliament, with expectations that the French draft decree will be adopted or rejected before the end of the year.