- The projects promote increased environmental protection, improved management of third-party waste, digitalisation to innovate in terms of processes and organisation, and research and development
- The beneficiary companies, which will receive aid of between 5.3 million and 110,000 euros, are distributed among the autonomous communities of Catalonia, Cantabria, the Community of Madrid, the Valencian Community, Galicia, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, La Rioja and the Basque Country
The Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), has just published the first partial resolution of the call for the granting of subsidies, on a competitive basis, for the promotion of the Circular Economy in the textile, fashion and footwear sector within the framework of the PERTE (Strategic Project for Economic Recovery and Transformation) of Circular Economy. which can be consulted here. The projects will receive public aid of 30.5 million, which will channel 74.9 million of total investment.
Of the 122 applications received, 37 projects have been selected (six of them are carried out by groups that bring together 13 companies). As for its nature; 55.26% are led by medium-sized companies, 31.57% by small companies and 31.57% by non-SMEs.
They will be executed by the 44 companies that stand out for their commitment to the circularity of their projects, which will receive aid between 110,000 euros and 5.3 million euros per project. Co-financing varies between 15% and 60%, depending on the type of action and the size of the entity.
DISTRIBUTION BY AUTONOMOUS
COMMUNITIESThe category that groups the most projects is the increase in the level of environmental protection of the beneficiaries (environmental improvements of the entity that have an impact on less extraction of resources or less generation of waste, 17 projects and 14.9 million in aid), revealing that reducing the consumption of virgin raw materials through improvements in processes or through the use of recycled materials is one of the great concerns of companies in this area. call.
Likewise, the action aimed at the advanced management of third-party waste presents eight projects with a grant of 9.65 million, which highlights the role that the implementation of innovative technologies that promote the circular economy by closing the cycle in the textile sector is acquiring. In this line, it also highlights that among the beneficiaries there are seven projects for research and development for ecodesign (2.64 million), key to minimizing environmental impacts in textile production and consumption, and five digitalization projects for organizational and process innovations (3.36 million).
TYPE OF PROJECTS
Projects to improve the platforms for buying and selling second-hand clothes through digital innovations stand out; lines of textile articles with vegetable dyes with optimal environmental properties; production of regenerated yarn from discarded coffee or cocoa bags; shoe soles with fewer chemicals; increasing the incorporation of recycled materials in garments through eco-design instead of virgin cotton; design and development of a new line for the treatment of waste from footwear to obtain quality materials; a new treatment method to remove improper waste such as zippers and buttons; or the sustainable transformation of textile sanitary waste into antimicrobial panels for construction, among others.
The proposed projects are spread over nine Autonomous Communities: Catalonia (20), Cantabria (1), Community of Madrid (1), Valencian Community (8), Galicia (2), Balearic Islands (1), Canary Islands (1), La Rioja (2) and Basque Country (1), with the Valencian Community being the region where the project with the most funding is proposed, with almost 5.3 million euros.
CIRCULAR
ECONOMY PERTEThe Circular Economy PERTE, financed by the Next Generation EU funds, aligned with the Spanish Circular Economy Strategy and European strategies in the field, has aid worth 492 million, with which it is expected to mobilise resources of more than 1,200 million during its execution.
Within the framework of the RTRP, funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU, this call seeks to align with the European Strategy for the circularity and sustainability of textile products, and with the Spanish Circular Economy Strategy (EEEC), Circular Spain 2030, approved in June 2020. This set of strategies seeks to reduce the presence of hazardous substances in fabrics, prevent the release of microplastics, promote sustainable consumption models, the durability of fabrics, or encourage reuse and recycling in closed cycles, promoting circular models to reduce the environmental impacts of the sector.
The Circular Economy PERTE, approved in May 2022 by Agreement of the Council of Ministers, identifies the textile sector as a priority and strategic for Spain in view of the dynamism of the textile, fashion and clothing and footwear sectors partly linked to unsustainable production and consumption models, such as fast and ultra-fast fashion. associated with high environmental impacts marked by low rates of use, reuse, repair and integration of new technologies that allow prevention in the extraction of resources, reuse, repair and high-quality recycling that minimizes the generation of waste.
The textile, fashion and footwear sector contributed 2.7% to the Spanish Gross Domestic Product in 2022, with Spain being one of the few countries in the European Union that has a leading industry that includes fibre preparation, spinning, weaving, dyeing and finishing, printing and finishing, as well as garment manufacturers and leading global companies.
In the European Union, the consumption of textile products, most of which are imported, currently represents the fifth most intensive sector in the use of virgin raw materials, and the sixth in its contribution to CO2 emissions that cause climate change.
Every year around 7 million tonnes of textile waste are discarded at European level, 900,000 tonnes in Spain alone where each person discards around 20 kilos of clothing per year, of which only 12% is collected separately for reuse or recycling, with the rest of the textile waste being landfilled or incinerated. losing its value for the economy.
