C-337 – The Textile Waste Reduction Strategy Act – establishes a national strategy for reducing fabric waste.
Strategy
C-337 gives the Minister of the Environment the responsibility to create a strategy to deal with fabric waste. This strategy needs to include measures for:
- Supporting the development of fabric recycling technologies and infrastructure
- Promoting the extension of the product lifetime of fabrics
- Educating consumers, designers, manufacturers, and retailers about ways to prevent waste in the fashion industry
- Requiring polluters to pay for the full cost of fabric waste, and encouraging industry collaboration in collection, sorting, and recycling
- Studying financial incentives for manufacturers to adopt recycling systems into their supply chains
- Examining removing the sales tax from fabric repair services
- Imposing labelling requirements that include amount of recycled content and chemicals used in manufacturing
- Prohibiting the use of fabrics and dyes that are harmful to human health and the environment
- Supporting reductions in the carbon footprint and water consumption of the industry
- Implementing sustainable design and production requirements to control microplastic pollution from fabrics
- Preventing the export of unusable fabric waste to developing countries
Reports
The Minister will have two years to build the strategy, and its effectiveness will be reviewed five years after that.
Progress
C-337 is currently outside of the Order of Precedence.