Turkish Textile Industry Will Be a Pioneer in Sustainability
The Turkish textile industry aims to further increase its market share in global exports by providing a permanent transformation with its action plan and to comply with the European Green Agreement norms at a high level.
The textile industry, which realized the highest national export of all time with an export volume of 6.2 billion US Dollars in the first half of the year and is the fifth largest exporter in the world, took action to be a pioneer in sustainability. The details of the action plan prepared by the Textile and Raw Materials Exporters’ Associations under the leadership of the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM) in order to spread the ‘sustainable textile’ vision throughout the sector were announced. Within the scope of the plan, the textile industry will take concrete steps on many important issues such as recycling wastewater, reducing the energy consumption of the industry, and recycling.
TIM President İsmail Gülle made the opening speech at the ‘Textile Industry Sustainability Action Plan’ meeting and stated the following, ‘‘The TIM Industry Sustainability Science Board will assume a critical responsibility in the green transformation process by guiding our sectors in determining and implementing sustainable policies in the industry. In addition, we are commissioning the Green Line within ALO TIM. Our companies will receive answers to questions about green transformation on a sectoral basis from our expert teams under the roof of TIM and the Association. We will make Turkey a brand country in the field of sustainability by realizing the goals in our action plan step by step. I invite all our industrialists, manufacturers, suppliers, and exporters to an understanding of production that prioritizes nature and the environment. Let’s renew the old infrastructure of our factories, separate the infrastructure of washing and dyeing water, recycle the washing water, expand the technologies that use less water in washing and dyeing, and reduce the share of fossil fuels in production as much as possible.’’
“We should see sustainability as an opportunity, not a risk.”
Ahmet Öksüz, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Istanbul Textile and Raw Materials Exporters’ Association (İTHİB), who made a speech at the meeting, stated that the Turkish textile industry is the fifth largest exporter in the world and the second-largest exporter in the EU and stated that they had to write new success stories in order to increase the global power of the national textile industry is further strengthened in today’s world where competitiveness is increasing rapidly. He continued his statement as the following, ‘‘We should see sustainability not as a risk but as a transformation process and evaluate it as an opportunity.’’ Öksüz, further expressed his expectations from the Ministries of Commerce, Agriculture and Forestry as follows: ‘‘These goals can only be achieved with the common vision of public-private cooperation. We are working with our Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to increase cotton premium difference support and increase production areas in order to further encourage organic cotton production. The difficulty in importing recycled textile products as raw materials does not match our industry’s approach. Within the framework of our industry’s zero-waste approach and sustainability vision, the import of used clothing products for recycling should be facilitated by the supervision and control of our Ministry of Commerce in a way that does not disrupt the dynamics of the domestic market.’’
‘‘Environmentally friendly sustainable production is not a choice but a necessity.’’
TİM Sectors Council Textile and Raw Materials Sector President Zeki Kıvanç emphasized that a very important breakthrough has been achieved in order to raise awareness of sustainability in Turkey and lay the groundwork for future practices, and expressed the following, ‘‘The topics such as circular economy, resource efficiency, digital transformation, the carbon footprint will be at the top of the list of the most discussed topics in the coming period. Environmentally friendly sustainable production is not a choice but a necessity for Turkey and the world. The Textile Sector Sustainability Action Plan is of great importance in order to develop the technical capacity and raise awareness of the cleaner production method and benefits of the Turkish industry.’’
Stating that the action plan will accelerate the harmonization process of the sector to the European Green Agreement and increase its market share in global trade, Southeastern Anatolia Textile and Raw Materials Exporters’ Association President Ahmet Fikret Kileci said, ‘‘Our exporting sectors such as textiles, which use electricity intensively in the production process, have the risk of being caught in the carbon barrier in EU exports. The de-carbonization of these sectors is of great importance in terms of maintaining the level of international competition. Therefore, Turkey needs to switch to a low-carbon production model as soon as possible and shape its economy within this framework. By taking advantage of the funding opportunity to be given within the framework of the ‘European Green Deal’, R&D and innovation activities in this field can be accelerated.’’
A Sustainability Platform will be established
Explaining the details of the ‘Textile Sector Sustainability Action Plan’, TIM Women’s Council Vice President and Textile Sector Sustainability Committee Chairman Sultan Tepe stated the following, ‘‘A Sustainability Platform will be established to implement the Textile Sector Sustainability Action Plan. Sub-committees will be formed within the platform. It will be ensured that sustainable raw material initiatives and R&D studies are carried out in terms of raw materials and products, and incentive studies will be carried out for the use of certified materials in production and the development of these resources. Efforts will be made to further encourage organic cotton production. In the title of sustainable supply chain management, projects will be developed with international stakeholders in order to support traceability and facilitate transparency in the textile supply chain.
Within the scope of circularity, cooperation studies will be planned with local governments and brands within the scope of collection, separation, recovery, and recycling of textile wastes. Initiatives will be initiated for the implementation of the Textile Recycling Center Project. A roadmap to reduce carbon emissions will be prepared. Attempts will be made to create financial resources to minimize water and energy consumption in paint shops and other businesses. Finally, under the heading of corporate social responsibility, projects will be developed to minimize occupational health and safety risks and to increase the employment rate of female employees.’’