Renewing the approach to textile waste management

THREADs is an abbreviation of the condensed description of the project: Textile and Habiliment Reuse for the Environment and NPA Area Development. As the official name suggests, the project is a three-year project funded by the Interreg Northern Periphery and Arctic program, which aims to comprehensively renew the approach to textile waste management. THREADs is a continuation of the preparatory project focused on the logistics and consumption challenges of textile waste in the NPA area. The goal is, of course, to significantly reduce textile waste here in the North and in the Arctic regions. In the project, several innovative approaches are implemented and investigated during the textile's life cycle, starting from the design work and ending with decommissioning. The pilot plans include e.g. introducing smart waste collection methods to guarantee resource efficiency and sustainable textile handling practices, designing recycling practices to be consumer-friendly, and involving different socio-economic groups in recycling activities. In addition, the project explores new business models to support sustainable practices. "I am very pleased that a large part of the textile value chain is represented in the project. A multidisciplinary team like this, consisting of textile waste collectors, waste management, universities and regional development experts, is a really important prerequisite for the success of the project. The growing popularity of fast fashion and irresponsible consumer behavior as well as the challenges related to the increase in textile waste make it very important to look to the future from the point of view of promoting the circulation of textiles", says Anna Tervonen, project manager of the THREADs project from Kajaani University of Applied Sciences.