Environmental Impacts

D1.4 reports the work of Task 1.4 within Work Package 1 of the Horizon Europe project TRUSTEX ("Advancing Sustainable Textiles in the Circular Economy through Innovative EPR Schemes"). The task pursued two objectives: to map the main environmental hotspots of the textile sector across life cycle stages and impact categories, including greenhouse gas emissions, microplastics release, and substances of concern; and to identify the life cycle assessment (LCA) indicators, datasets, and characterisation factors used for textile products. The method is a structured literature review, with 33 short-listed studies and reports analysed in depth. The findings feed two downstream tasks, providing LCA methodological inputs for Task 2.3 and eco-design insights for Task 3.1. The review confirms that environmental burden falls across the whole value chain, with the production phase, covering raw material sourcing, fabric manufacturing, and wet processing, as the dominant contributor to emissions, resource use, water use, and chemical pollution. Materials production accounts for around 55 percent of the industry's greenhouse gas emissions, the use stage adds substantial impact through washing, drying, and ironing, and end-of-life outcomes vary, with reuse and mechanical recycling generally performing better than chemical recycling. On methodology, the report summarises the impact categories and characterisation models set by the Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules for apparel and footwear, notes Ecoinvent as the most cited database, and records recurring gaps in water effluent inventory data and biodiversity indicators. Dedicated sections address microplastics, where synthetic textiles account for an estimated 16 to 35 percent of ocean microplastic pollution, and substances of concern, with up to 3,500 hazardous substances reported in production. A set of eco-design recommendations covers material choice, fibre and yarn design to reduce shedding, cleaner dyeing, durability, and recyclability. The conclusions flag several limitations that qualify the evidence: inconsistent LCA functional units and system boundaries, uneven coverage of impact categories, inventory data gaps for water effluents, scarce long-term data for bio-based and recycled fibres, wide uncertainty in microplastics quantification, limited integration of substance-level toxicity, and geographical and product biases toward Asian production and cotton or polyester garments. The report recommends greater methodological standardisation and broader empirical coverage, and notes that circular economy and EPR performance, including that developed within TRUSTEX, remains to be validated at scale.