Textile ETP at the Nordic-Baltic Textile Circularity Forum 2026

On 7-8 October 2026, Textile ETP took part in the Nordic-Baltic Textile Circularity Forum 2026 in Riga, Latvia. The two-day forum was organised by tExtended, one Horizon Europe project and one of the founding members of the ECOSYSTEX Community, together with the textile circularity project of the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Offices in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, and it also served as the final showcase of the tExtended results. It brought together policymakers, industry stakeholders, researchers, innovators and practitioners from across the four Nordic and three Baltic countries.

Our Secretary General, Lutz Walter, delivered one of the opening keynotes, setting out what is needed to move textile circularity from a waiting game to profitable everyday practice, and presented the Bioeconomy Innovation Strategy for the European Fibres, Textiles, and Apparel Industry. The opening session also featured contributions from Riga City Council, the European Environment Agency, VTT, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden and Carr Communications, covering the global and European landscape of textile circularity.

Day one was given over to the results of tExtended, with industry pilots in fashion, workwear, home and technical textiles presented alongside the research behind them, most of it publicly available through the project website, as well as an overview of the project’s waste reduction and sustainability potential.

Day two turned to a comparative study on the maturity of textile circularity across the Nordic and Baltic countries, followed by an in-depth panel on the state of preparation and implementation of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in those countries, with all the key stakeholders around the table.