Procuring textiles made from recycled fibres

Background

The Ministry of Defence of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (MODNL) is a large public sector buyer, employing around 58,800 people across the army, air force, military police and other supporting roles. It is also is one of 45 public and private parties brought together by the Dutch Government's Circular Procurement Green Deal, which tasked participants with carrying out two circular procurement initiatives between 2013 and 2016 in order to increase knowledge and accelerate the transition to a circular economy. One area of focus identified by the MODNL was textiles, due to its need to equip its large numbers of personnel with uniforms and other textile products. Textile production is linked with a number of environmental and social problems. These impacts can vary depending on the type or mix of fibre that a product is made from, but in general, the energy to transform raw materials and manufacture new fibres in the production of textiles has a significant carbon footprint, and the eco-toxicity of many industrial inputs (such as dyes) can result in water, air and terrestrial pollution, damaging ecosystems as well as risking human health (particularly for workers in the supply-chain subject to inadequate working conditions). As such, textiles are ranked as the product category with the fourth greatest environmental impact, after food and drink, transport and housing.1 New textiles are normally derived from either natural fibres such as cotton (where water-use plus the pollution and emissions arising from fertilisers and pesticide production and use can be high) or synthetic fibres such as polyester or nylon, which are derived from fossil fuels. However, a third option - recycled fibres - also exists, and by seeking to procure textiles containing recycled content, the MODNL realised it would be able to drastically reduce the environmental impacts of its procurement, while also supporting manufacturers repurposing the vast amounts of textile waste created each year in Europe.

Procurement Approach

The MODNL began exploring the market for recycled textiles in January 2014 by publishing a Request for Information, and conducting an open meeting for sector-related suppliers. The aim of this market engagement was to assess possibilities for requiring recycled fibres to be used in the production of certain items. The market research

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demonstrated that manufacturers were able to meet requirements around the use of recycled content, and that to facilitate this, the MODNL should focus on functional instead of descriptive technical specifications i.e. focus on an items ability to perform its use rather than technical values such as tensile strength. As a result, the MODNL decided to pilot reused fibre requirements in three lots: towels and wash cloths, overalls, and scarves and handkerchiefs.

Criteria used in the procurement process

Subject matter of the contract

Procuring towels and overalls containing at least 10% recycled post-consumer textile fibres.

Technical specifications

Towels and overalls had to contain at least 10% recycled post-consumer cellulose fibres. Suppliers were required to demonstrate this through microscopic testing (where a microscopic search is done of the fibre length, quantity of damaged fibres and kind of fibres, from which is possible to measure the amount of recycled fibres included). Recycled fibres was also specified to mean fibres coming from post-consumer textile material as opposed to production waste or other alternative sources.

Award criteria

Each contract was awarded to the most economically advantageous tender.

Each bid was assigned a score out of a possible 100 points (maximum) based on price, the maximum percentage of recycled content and certification of this, and data sheets demonstrating the quality and materials used.

The points for the maximum percentage of recycled content were calculated as follows: 50 % 20 points

30 % 10 points

10 % 0 points

The contract was awarded to the bidder with the highest score.

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Results

The contracts were awarded in June 2016, and are worth approximately 430,000 for towels and wash cloths and 1.38 million for overalls. Six suppliers submitted bids, however, only four were able to meet the tender requirements in two of the three lots. The lot for scarves and handkerchiefs received no valid bids. Two Belgian companies now supply the MODNL with towels and wash cloths, and overalls. A high percentage of recycled fibres are processed in the new textile fibres: 36% and 14%. The parties will also learn and innovate during the four-year term, which could result in a higher percentage of recycled material later on in the execution of the contract. As this was a pilot procedure, no limit was placed on the price per product. The use of recycled postconsumer materials in new products resulted in a 25% price increase, compared to the previous contract. At the same time, a separate eight-year contract was also signed for reuse services, in which a third party was contracted to sort items of clothing for reuse and resale, with income being returned to the MODNL. This will result in considerable savings for the MODNL, and the contract includes a provision to expand it to the entire central/national government. Sustainability impacts

The 100,000 towels purchased by the MODNL contained 36% recycled post-consumer textiles fibres, and the overalls contained 14% recycled post-consumer textiles fibres. This resulted in estimated savings totaling:

233,478,000 litres of water use

68,880 kg CO2 emissions

23,520 MJ of energy consumption

These savings were calculated using the ECO LCA Tool from Modint. In order to meet

the requirements of the tender, manufacturing companies were challenged to find and integrate post-consumer textile resources into their production processes, thus supporting a more circular approach to (consumer) textile collection and reuse. By using post-consumer fibres, the need for production of new content is reduced, thereby diminishing the strain production has on the environment.

Q1. How did the MODNL engage with the market for recycled textiles before launching the pilot procurement?

Q2. What are the environmental and social problems associated with textile production?

Q3. How did the MODNL calculate the environmental savings from using recycled fibres in towels and overalls?

Q4. What were the challenges faced by the MODNL in procuring scarves and handkerchiefs containing recycled fibres?