Drive for more sustainability in the Nonwovens Industry: insights from the 2nd EDANA Nonwoven Sustainability Forum

Companies across all nonwovens applications from across the value chain, NGOs, European regulators, and legislators presented their views on requirements and initiatives for a more sustainable future of the industry and discussed with participants of the forum the most viable paths ahead.

The 5R’s of the circular economy, Scope 3 compliance, degradability of nonwoven materials, post-industrial and post-consumer chemical recycling, the single plastic use directive and the new textile waste management directive, were the dominating topics discussed on the podium, during the coffee breaks and the visit of the European commission.

Special consideration was given to the following:

• The feasibility and usefulness of the new Textile Waste Management Directive, coming into force by January 1st, 2025, were all EU member states are required to collect textile waste separately from all other waste.
• The critical role that carbon capture with permanent storage (CCS) and utilization (CCU) can or cannot play for the decarbonization of the industry
• The awareness and avoidance of green washing in all its different shapes like green -lighting, -hushing, -rinsing, -shifting, -crowding and -labelling
• The main targets for a circular economy - reducing, reusing, recycling, recovering and repairing – to remain a major challenge in the nonwoven industry and companies are trying to tackle it with different approaches.

These types of sustainability ambitions, market and regulatory trends as well as consumer expectations will continue to shape the nonwovens industry in the future. However, it became clear: for the nonwoven suppliers to stay competitive with their existing and future customer base, the underlying question of most discussions at the Forum was: Is the customer and the consumer willing to pay more for sustainability? The majority of participants of the Forum agreed that the willingness lies far below 10% across all industries and consumer groups. Only regulatory initiatives will lead societies towards the ambitious goals of increased sustainability within the industry.

What became apparent again during the three-day conference is that sustainability efforts in the nonwoven industry are still in their infancy and benchmarks and examples of successful implementations are still scarce. The danger of green washing remains and there still is a long way to go to make this industry truly more sustainable.
Schlegel und Partner supports their customers in the nonwovens industry to discover trends and stakeholder expectations and provide industry insight directly from the industry and players along the value chain.

Are you interested in further information?
Please do not hesitate to contact us:
Dorothea Slevogt
Phone number +49 6201 9915 76
Dorothea.slevogt@SchlegelundPartner.de

© Schlegel und Partner 2024