Our technical director Paul Hamilton was asked by Laundry and Cleaning Today about his sector predictions for 2025. Here’s what he said…
2025 will be the year that forward-thinking laundry owners and managers in the UK turn their attention to EPR, or extended producer responsibility – the EU legislation that’s progressing fast and certain to prompt HUGE change for any business that deals in textiles.
Yes it’s EU. And no, Great Britain is not in the EU. But where the EU overhauls its rules and standards, others will follow – particularly next-door neighbours like the UK, where EPR is on our own Government’s radar for action at a future point to be decided.
You have probably heard of EPR and are perhaps aware that this is an amendment to the EU Waste Framework Directive (WFD) currently moving through the legislative process.
When it’s implemented, companies will be charged for the costs associated with the end-of-life management of their products. We do not know yet what those fees might be. But their aim is to support circularity by cutting textile waste.
It is certain that the threat of big bills for sending waste to landfill will be yet another reason to incentivise laundries, hospitality providers, healthcare organisations and others to really focus on binning far less – and put good intentions into everyday practice.
We’ve talked for years at Regenex about the importance of thrift and getting the most out of every piece of precious linen. Now this concept is moving rapidly into a sharper and more immediate focus.
The sector must get ready to embrace the ‘polluter pays principle’ which will place ALL of the cost of managing textile waste onto one operator in the supply chain – usually the importer, or the brand, or in this case the company that buys and holds the linen stock.
At some point in the near-ish future, collection, sorting, recycling and disposal of all textiles in Europe will be chargeable. A final draft of the new rules is expected soon, then EU member states will have 18 months to set up schemes in their own territories.
In the UK, we’re not quite at this stage yet but there’s been talk of an EPR pilot scheme involving the UK Fashion and Textiles Association, the British Fashion Council and the British Retail Consortium.
In the meantime, international legal practice Osborne Clarke is among industry commentators advising UK companies make circularity central to business planning, minimising waste, to give them the sustainable edge that will facilitate near-future commercial success.
Progressive players in the industry see EPR as an opportunity – simply another driver, among many, to conserve resources and operate as ethically as possible. Saving money of course is a welcome knock-on effect of buying less linen stock and extending its lifespan, but that’s a whole other story.
So in summary, our prediction for 2025 is that the familiar impetus to re-use resources and generate less waste will intensify. It is quickly becoming short-sighted and self-sabotaging for businesses not to take note, and then take action.
Regenex can support laundries’ circularity ambitions by removing heavy stains from good, white linen that would otherwise be condemned, and providing top-up over-dyeing services for towels, tableware and other items.