The Retailer Winter Edition 2023

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Funding innovation While demand for take-back is likely to increase under EPR, recycling also needs to scale up. To design for recycling, we need to simplify products. Material blends create problems for recyclers, while fibres such as elastane make textiles hard to sort. Under the French textiles scheme, the annual Innovation Challenge funds important research to develop technology or improve markets. With more than half of global PET oriented towards the textile market, making this material available for recycling into new fibres is critical. The five Innovation Challenge winners chosen in 2021 are working on projects that range from recycling polyester threads sourced from complicated waste materials, to recycling sneaker soles into parquet underlay. Around the globe, the focus is turning to textiles. With the right drivers in place, EPRwill expedite a major shift for the textiles industry. With the right support, retailers can gain confidence in their compliance overseas, and prepare for coming legislation in the UK and beyond. *ReBound consumer survey, 2022.

Challenges for retailers Managing compliance is complex and time-consuming. To prepare busi nesses for UK packaging waste EPR, for example, Valpak has expanded our online data reporting systems. Under eco-modulation, we expect the requirement to rise from 117 fields of information to more than 1,000 fields. To meet the extra reporting requirements for EPR, Plastic Packaging Tax and the deposit return scheme (DRS), our calculations show that reporting timewill increase by 368 per cent, to 30.5 days a year. Reuse sits at the top of the waste hierarchy, and is a popular option with consumers – research by ReBound, Valpak’s sister companywithin the Reconomy Group, shows that charity donations (49.81 per cent) and sale (27.35 per cent) are the preferred options for consumers with unwanted clothing*. However, markets for used clothing in the UK are limited. This leads to products finding their way overseas, into systems that are difficult to police. As a result, robust data trails are crucial. ReBound’s global returns service tracks every product through the system, and it also operates a donation portal used by brands including Cotton Traders and Pretty Lavish and by members of the public ( https://valpaktakeback. intelligentreturns.net/main/landing ). Unwanted items are posted to the Salvation Army for reuse.

James Beard james.beard@valpak.co.uk