Abstract
The European Union has committed to increasing the circularity of textiles in accordance with the Green Deal and the Strategy for Sustainable Textiles. This strategy brings about fundamental changes throughout the entire product lifecycle - from requirements for eco-design regarding repairability or recyclability, ensuring a functional textile collection network, as well as implementing digital labelling for example.
However, the practical application of circular economy principles in the textile industry faces several challenges. This study aims to identify the barriers to circularity with holistic view and potential policy responses in the context of the Czech Republic through a combination of questionnaires and qualitative in-depth interviews with all stakeholders.
The identified barriers include microeconomic, macroeconomic, technological, institutional, and data-related factors. In terms of the wider recommendations, the identified priorities include disincentives for unsustainable textile production and landfilling and an extended producer responsibility (EPR) scheme.
The findings of this study can inform the development of national measures (for the Czech Republic as well as for other EU countries) and contribute to the achievement of the EU's circular economy goals for textiles.