ItalianoUltimo aggiornamento: 12/05/2022
"If the world were dressed in wool it would be more circular."
This quote emerges from the latest report by the international Textile organization Exchange on the use of fibers in the fashion world. Only one in a hundred garments is made of wool but thanks to the city of Prato, this is more likely to be recycled than any other material used to dress up. It is unlikely that a garment destined for recycling does not make a stop in the city of Prato, in Tuscany - Italy. The world must rethink consumption but above all, production models so that eco-design becomes a new world standard. This is especially the case in fashion where the circular economy is still an exception. Prato understood before others that value can be recovered where everyone sees waste. It is precisely for this reason that they will talk about their circular history in this talk that is part of the project of the city: Prato Circular City!
The municipality of Prato with its 200.000 inhabitants is the second largest city in Tuscany and the third in Central Italy for the number of citizens. Prato is famous all over the world for its textile district, which represents about 3% of the European textile production.
3,500 textile companies and over 4,000 clothing companies employ about 33,000 workers in what is considered an industry serving the big fashion brands but also the production of fast fashion, a sector in which Prato is a leader in Europe and a reference to the great distribution. It is a city where many cultures coexist and which, with contradictions and problems, integrates different knowledge and lifestyles.
Prato plays a strategic role in the regional and large area, and with respect to this assumption the municipal administration has developed a medium-long term vision, based on an analysis of the existing and on a Sustainable Development perspective, as a strategic prerogative on which to concentrate programming and towards which to converge the actions of both the public and private sectors. Prato also has a great tradition in innovation not only in its manufacturing production but also in the local government's ability to experiment in services to citizens. Historically, in Prato, the concepts of recovery, recycling, reuse have been associated with the virtuosity of the textile district, anticipating the current global guidelines on the Green Economy by decades. The concept of “circular economy” has been applied on the textile supply chain and in other supply chains to avoid or reduce the disposal in landfills of considerable quantities of waste with a consequent lower environmental impact; replace the raw material with secondary raw material; develop creativity and new business opportunities
Cities represent a great opportunity for the development of a new vision of circular economy as highlighted by the Pact of Amsterdam adopted by the European Union in 2016 and are the real battlefield of the new challenges of the 21st century society, as emphasized by the New United Nations Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda.
Prato Circular City is a project promoted by the Municipality of Prato to promote the city's transition towards the circular economy. Prato is strongly characterized by a homogeneous production district and is particularly suitable for this transition.
The project promotes sharing and participation to identify concrete actions that can generate a significant impact on the transition of the city and district towards the circular economy. It is a Smart Living Lab that addresses 4 main themes of the circular economy in relation to the peculiarities of the city of Prato: the Textile & Clothing district, the management of urban resources, circular consumption and sustainable urban agricultural systems, as well as a transversal theme, governance.
ph. Marco Badiani
The Commission approved last month the European Strategy for Sustainable Textiles. It is a complex document, which addresses many issues and which seeks to outline a path to accompany the textile and fashion sector towards a transition that touches different aspects. Producers, brands, but also consumers and national governments are called to implement this revolution which will take place in different steps, but which must be completed by 2030. A schedule is foreseen for the innovations that will be inserted between now and 2025 and the mandatory regulations will have to be approved in the coming months.
The Commission, launching the document, specified: "By 2030, textile products placed on the EU market will be long-lived and recyclable, largely made with recycled fibers, free from hazardous substances and produced in compliance with social and environmental rights. Consumers will benefit longer from high quality at affordable prices, fast fashion is out of style and reuse and repair cost-effective for all. In a competitive, resilient and innovative textile sector, manufacturers take responsibility for their products along the value chain, even when they become waste. The circular textile ecosystem will flourish, driven by sufficient capacity for innovative fiber-to-fiber recycling, while the incineration and landfilling of fabrics are minimized.
We will discuss about this in a dedicated Talk coordinated by Lorenzo Sciadini, expert and trainer on the issues of the circular economy, together with:
You can follow the event in person at the PRISMA spaces in via Galcianese 34 - Prato (PO) 59100.
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Ultimo aggiornamento: 12/05/2022