Ms Claire Downey:

The circular textile study, which was led by Dr. Miller and me - it is important to say we were involved in it - looked at the impact of separate collection of textiles and, down the line, the impact of an EPR scheme on the sector that is already there.

It looked into what all the additional collection will do and what we will do with the textiles if we collect more or divert them from the bin. Some of the conclusions were that investment – a third part of the deposition – is absolutely needed in back-end sorting facilities, logistics, warehousing and outlets, or in upcycling or handling facilities to turn textiles into something that can be returned to the market. These are the invisible back-end aspects but the need was identified at the back-end level, not just in terms of having more outlets or places-----