Rome – With a turnover of over 102 billion euros in 2023, around 60,000 companies, and 600,000 employees, the fashion industry accounts for 4% of Italy's national GDP, of which 90% is generated by exports. This makes it Italy's third-largest manufacturing sector. However, the textile sector also has one of the highest ecological impacts: globally, it is the second most polluting industry after petroleum, consuming 93 billion cubic meters of water annually, and responsible for 20% of the world's water pollution and 10% of CO2 emissions. On the occasion of the fashion roundtable convened for tomorrow by the Minister of Enterprises and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, to discuss the crisis in the textile sector and potential solutions, Ecomondo—the leading event in the Mediterranean basin for the green and circular economy sector, which will be held at the Rimini Expo Center from November 5th to 8th, organized by the Italian Exhibition Group (IEG)—offers itself as a hub for discussing the environmental challenges facing the textile supply chain. One of the major issues in the sector is the end-of-life management of clothes and non-reusable textile fibers. Globally, less than 1% of textile waste is recycled. Most of this waste is exported and ends up in large landfills in Asia, Africa, and South America. In Italy, according to ISPRA data, 160,000 tons of textile waste were produced in 2022, with an average of about 2.7 kg per inhabitant, of which only 22% is collected for reuse or recycling.