Members' Business — S6M-06368 Stephanie Callaghan: Circular Fashion: Looping the Thread

That the Parliament encourages the adoption of circular fashion methods that ensure clothing is produced in a more considered way that closes the loop on production, including responsible manufacturing, use, and the end-of-life stage, emphasising the value of utilising a garment right to the end; understands that, over the past decades, the production and consumption of clothing has increased exponentially around the world leading to a dramatic increase in the negative social and environmental consequences; notes that a report by Zero Waste Scotland, which assessed the carbon impact of Scotland’s household waste, showed that textiles account for nearly a third of emissions even though they only make up 4% of waste by weight; further notes that Scotland is home to what it understands is the UK’s leading circular fashion hub, Advanced Clothing Solutions (ACS), offering fashion brands and retailers a carbon neutral, rental and resale fulfilment service from a developing biodiversity area in Holytown, North Lanarkshire; welcomes the Scottish Government’s £2 million Circular Textiles Fund, as well as the £18 million Circular Economy Investment Fund, administered by Zero Waste Scotland, offering investment for SMEs based in Scotland and supporting work that will deliver circular economy growth; considers that there is need for transparency in the fashion supply chain; notes the calls for legislation that helps to achieve fair pay for textile and garment workers around the world, in light of reports that modern slavery runs deep within the industry, and further notes the growing calls to incentivise responsible and circular consumption through fiscal and regulatory levers that reward fashion companies that design products with lower environmental impacts and penalise those that do not.