To develop the circular economy, the fashion and recycling industries from all around the world have banded together to call for harmonized digital labeling (QR codes). The Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Group (SMART), an international non-profit trade group with headquarters in Switzerland, has joined 130 recycling, fashion, and footwear organizations from around the world in calling on legislative bodies to update the rules for textile labeling.
The decision would advance real, circular, and sustainable fashion and textile recycling solutions. In a news release, SMART stated that #CutTheTape helps consumers by offering more product information via digital channels.
Labeling tape is manufactured at a rate of around 5.7 million miles (9.2 million km), which is enough to reach twelve times from the Earth to the moon. Since the 1960s, labeling regulations have not been amended. The inconsistent and out-of-date labeling regulations that are now in place make it difficult to track the origins of commodities and encourage a circular economy.
In addition to reducing labeling waste and removing at least 343,000 MT of emissions from industry supply chains, digital technology solutions, like QR code labels, also give customers more thorough and precise information about the products they are buying. By giving information about resale, repair, rental, upcycling, or recycling, the data would also help with the lifecycle of the garment. SMART has urged the Federal Trade Commission of the United States and other organizations across the world to employ digital tools to standardize labeling regulations.
The group has also requested that international, national, and municipal regulations be changed by government regulators to permit the adoption of entirely digital labeling solutions. In the circular economy, QR codes would increase the usefulness and value of things for extended periods while opening up new possibilities for resale, repair, rental, upcycling, or recycling.
According to SMART president Steve Rees, “Greener e-labeling opens the door for accountability and transparency in the global textile recycling market. “QR codes will empower consumers by delivering more readily available information and essential data that can strategically extend a garment’s or an item’s lifecycle as it travels through the reliable reuse and recycling distribution chain.”
Legislative leaders have been urged by SMART to move quickly to establish strict rules for digital labeling, which will provide more responsible results and benefit the environment and the global economy.
