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Today, April 24, marks an anniversary that we should not forget: the collapse of the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, which occurred in 2013, when over 1,100 people lost their lives and another 2,500 were injured. It was not a simple fatality, but the tragic consequence of a system that places the economic profit margin as the only regulating principle of the fashion industry. That dilapidated building housed textile factories that produced for international brands, a perfect symbol of a global industry that systematically hides its responsibilities behind complex supply chains.
From that tragedy, the Fashion Revolution movement was born, which for 12 years has reminded us through the Fashion Revolution Week that fashion can and must change. This year, from April 22 to 27, we returned to ask ourselves #ChiHaFattoIMieiVestiti and to remember that behind every garment there is the work of people who deserve dignity, safety and a fair wage.
But why continue to talk about ethical and sustainable fashion? Because the fashion industry remains one of the most polluting in the world. A single pair of jeans requires almost 4,000 liters of water to be produced. Fast fashion has transformed clothes into "disposable" objects, with devastating consequences for the environment. It is an unsustainable race that our planet can no longer afford.
The good news is that the pressure of movements such as Fashion Revolution has finally produced concrete results. The European Union has understood the need for a paradigm shift, introducing regulations that aim to transform the industry through the principles of the circular economy. Directive 2018/851/EU has rewritten the rules on extended producer responsibility, pushing for an approach that considers the entire life cycle of products. A new EU regulation on textile waste is also being defined that will establish more stringent eco-design requirements, transparency obligations on the composition of materials and ambitious targets for separate collection and recycling at European level.
And in Italy? Even in our country, home of textile excellence and quality fashion, Extended Producer Responsibility (#EPR) for the textile and fashion sector is finally taking shape. A true revolution that will force producers, importers and distributors to take charge of the management of post-consumer textile waste.
The draft decree on textile EPR includes ambitious objectives: separate collection of 15% of textile waste by 2026, 25% by 2030 and 40% by 2035. Producers will have to pay an environmental contribution that will finance not only waste management, but also research and development for eco-design, recycling technologies and the promotion of reuse.
The Italian law on EPR is not perfect and could be improved, but it represents a fundamental first step. For the first time, it establishes that those who produce and sell clothing must take responsibility for what happens to their products when they become waste (as already happens in other industries). It is a radical change of mentality, which shifts the focus from eternal consumption to durability and circularity. The road is still long, but the future of sustainable fashion also passes through laws that transform good intentions into concrete obligations.
At Regenesi we firmly believe in this vision: true sustainability requires shared responsibility. Italy has the opportunity to reinterpret its textile and fashion industry by incorporating #eco-design, #innovativetechnologies and #manufacturing capacity in a new vision and new business models. At Regenesi we have been working daily for this for 16 years, so that #ilbelloèsostenibile and #fromwastetobeauty are filled with concrete actions and meanings.