The Climate Agency and the Portuguese Association of Distribution Companies (APED) will develop a pilot project to find solutions to increase the return and recycling of textile products, announced today by the Ministry of Environment.
The project will be funded up to 450 thousand euros by the Environmental Fund and aims to “study and develop a way to return used textiles, altering not only the logistics and operation of companies, but also adapting and changing the behavior of the consumer themselves,” the ministry said in a statement.
The agency and APED, which gathers retail and wholesale companies in the textile sector, signed a technical collaboration protocol for this purpose, and the project will run for a period of one year, i.e., until September 2026.
Textile waste, the Ministry recalls, are major sources of water pollution, responsible for the release of microplastics and generators of greenhouse gases, which worsens the climate and environmental crises.
The ministry led by Maria da Graça Carvalho notes that this project is “particularly relevant in the context of the review of the Directive on waste 2008/98/EC, which will create extended producer responsibility systems.”
For the Minister of Environment and Energy this “is an opportunity to accelerate the transition to a circular economy in the textile sector which, more than an environmental responsibility, is an obligation for companies that want to be competitive and sustainable”.
