Gestión y tratamiento de residuos | Waste Management & Treatment ¿Cuántas veces vas a usar la camiseta que te acabas de comprar? ¿Dónde crees que acabará? Seguro que es una camiseta preciosa y que tienes pensando ponértela en varias ocasiones, pero los datos indican que el uso de las prendas disminuyó un 36% entre los años 2000 y 2015, es decir, que probablemente te la pondrás menos de lo que piensas. Las prendas y la moda son cada vez más efímeras y el tan dañino “usar y tirar” no sólo es una realidad, sino que está descompensado estrepitosamente hacia el “tirar”. La renovación constante de las colecciones acelera la obsolescencia de las prendas y los calzados, llegando en ocasiones al cero uso, lo que reduce su ciclo básicamente a “comprar y tirar”. Sin ir más lejos, la Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU) ha calificado a la industria del fast fashion como “emergencia medioambiental”, pues es la segunda que más agua utiliza en sus procesos del mundo, por detrás de la energética, y produce el 20% de las aguas residuales a escala global. Además, el sector es responsable del 10% de las emisiones de dióxido de carbono que se lanzan a la atmosfera, más que las producidas por todos los vuelos internacionales y el envío marítimo de mercancías, juntos. Pero además, el vertido en España sigue siendo alarmante. En nuestro país, cada consumidor desecha 12 kilos de ropa de promedio por año. Gran parte de esta ropa, cerca del 90%, acaba en vertederos, pues la recogida selectiva del residuo textil apenas alcanza el 8-10% de lo desechado. Esta situación es más que preocupante y How many times are you going to use the T-shirt you have just bought?Where do you think it will end up? No doubt it is a lovely T-shirt and you intend to wear it many times, but the figures show that the use of garments fell by 36% between the years 2000 and 2015. In other words, you will probably wear it less than you think. Garments and fashion are increasingly ephemeral and the very harmful “use and throw”model is not only a reality but is firmly balanced more towards “throw” than “use”. Constant renewal of collections accelerates the obsolescence of garments and footwear. Sometimes, clothes are not actually used at all, meaning that the cycle basically becomes “buy and throw”. Without looking further afield, the United Nations has classed the fast fashion industry as an “environmental emergency”. It is the industry with the second-highest consumption of process water in the world, after the energy industry, and it accounts for 20% of global wastewater production. Moreover, the sector is responsible for 10% of total carbon dioxide emissions, more than those produced by international flights and maritime goods shipping combined. And in Spain, the quantity of textiles landfilled continues to be alarming. Each consumer throws away an average of 12 kg of clothes per annum in Spain. Almost 90% of these clothes end up in landfills and separate collection of textile waste only accounts for 8-10% of the total. This is a more-than-worrying situation and represents a serious failure to comply with short- and mediumterm European targets. There is, in effect, much to be done if we wish to put an end to this consumption model and perhaps you will already have deduced that much of the solution lies in the famous three Rs: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.We might think that all this depends on consumers, but is this really the case? The European Union is determined to put an end to this situation and has taken action on the matter. The Circular Economy Action Plan, which forms part of what is known as the European Green Deal, was adopted in March 2020 and features a commitment fromMember States to implement separate waste textile collection by 2025. In addition, the EuropeanWaste Directive sets out that 55% of municipal waste must be recycled or reused by the same year (with a higher target of 65% by 2035). To put it frankly, Spain is very far off the pace in this area, particularly with respect to textiles. By way of example, a collective Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme for the selective collection of textile waste has yet to be set up, while such systems are already in place in other sectors, such as packaging, light fittings and electronic equipment. However, EL NUEVO SELLO DE REUTILIZACIÓN Y RECICLABILIDAD TEXTIL DISTINGUIRÁ EL GREENWASHING DEL AUTÉNTICO COMPROMISO AMBIENTAL La consultoría ambiental DríadeSM, junto con el Gremi de Recuperació de Catalunya, diseñarán el primer Sello de Reutilización y Reciclabilidad Textil de España, una ecoetiqueta rigurosa y objetiva que busca sentar las bases para la entrada real del sector textil en la economía circular. NEW TEXTILE REUSE AND RECYCLABILITY LABEL WILL DISTINGUISH GREENWASHING FROM TRUE ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITMENT DríadeSM, the environmental consultancy company, along with the Catalan Recovery Guild, will design Spain’s first Textile Reuse and Recyclability label, a rigorous, objective eco-label which seeks to pave the way for the textile industry to truly enter the circular economy. FuturEnviro | Octubre/Noviembre October/November 2020 www.futurenviro.es 39
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