Circular economy in European Union textile industry chain and key issues of waste textiles treatment

The contradiction between waste textiles and green sustainable development is becoming increasingly prominent under the vision of carbon neutrality. The textile industry should not only focus on the treatment of end-of-life waste textiles, but also reduce the negative impact on the environment from the industrial chain. Due to the systematic and comprehensive impact of carbon footprint, carbon emission reduction measures should be based on the industrial chain and textile life cycle. The European Union (EU) has a series of measures to achieve circular economy and deal with waste textiles, which are of reference significance. The EU's relevant situation was explored in three aspects, i.e., the current situation and challenges of the EU textile industry, the sustainability in the textile industry chain, and the disposal and key issues of waste textiles. The enlightenment of the EU's experience to the policy making in China was also discussed. Inspired by the carbon footprint accounting method of the life cycle assessment, the textile industry chain was divided into four stages: material selection, design, production and sales, and end-use to discuss green and low-carbon measures, and the response method of waste textiles is reuse and recycling. The key issues in processing waste textiles are classification and sorting, recycling quality and safety, extended producer responsibility and labeling system. © 2022, Periodical Agency of Journal of Textile Research. All right reserved.