Wrap launches Textiles Action Week, following release of SCAP final report

Wrap Textiles Action Week has commenced, running from 18 October to 22 October 2021. The awareness week follows the release of Wrap's Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP) final report.

Textiles 2030 is Wraps’s new voluntary agreement for UK textiles, using the expertise of UK leaders in sustainability to accelerate the fashion industry’s move towards circularity and system change in the UK. Launched in April, Textiles 2030 brings forward partnerships, learning, research, collaborative ways of working and tools from many SCAP signatories.

Wrap's Textiles Action Week aims to raise awareness for Textiles 2030 and the importance of sustainability in the fashion and textiles industry.

Over the next decade, the Textiles 2030 agreement aims to transform the UK’s "make-use-dispose fashion culture" into a more conscious one, where products are made sustainably, used longer and then re-used or recycled. To achieve this, Wrap plans to reduce the impact UK clothing and home fabrics have on the environment through interventions along the entire textiles chain, which the Textiles 2030 Roadmap sets out.

Rebecca Pow, UK Government Environment Minister (2019-2021), said: "It is time for businesses across the textiles sector to join Textiles 2030 and play their part at this critical time for the planet. Through Textiles 2030 we invite your commitment to work with Wrap, like-minded businesses and other partners towards a thriving, sustainable, circular UK textiles sector. I would like to see every CEO involved in this initiative."

The launch of the Wrap Textile Action Week follows the release of the SCAP final report today. The report finalises the SCAP commitment to reduce the carbon, water and waste impact of the UK textiles industry from its launch in 2012 to 2020.

In 2012 the sustainable fashion movement had limited awareness and minimal opportunities for textile companies to collaborate around a shared agenda. Describing its efforts in the report, Wrap acknowledged that before SCAP there was no accessible resource available for clothing brands and retailers who wanted to measure and take action on the impact of their products.

By 2020 over 90 organisations, including brands and retailers representing 43–48% of UK clothing by sales volume, committed to collectively target, measure and act to reduce their environmental impact with SCAP.

The final report found that the SCAP initiative saw a 21.6% reduction in carbon, 18.2% reduction in water and an overall 60% of its waste target was met. The report also shows in 2020, 63% of cotton sold from more sustainable sources and 690,000 tonnes of clothing was collected by Re-use and Recycling signatories since its 2015 baseline.

As SCAP comes to an end, #Textiles2030 celebrates progress - with 62% of UK clothing market already signed up to slash carbon and water over next decade #Sustainabletextiles #TextilesActionWeek https://t.co/MAtxE60ubU

— WRAP (@WRAP_NGO) October 19, 2021

Marcus Gover, CEO at Wrap, said: "As we bring the curtain down on the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP), it is a timely moment to honour the success of the last eight years and reflect on how SCAP, from the start, has set the standard, ensuring the UK clothing and textiles industry is playing its part in reducing its impact on the environment.

"The pioneers in SCAP have helped us to shape Textiles 2030, the next chapter in our journey. The new agreement is more ambitious and bigger in scope."