The EU’s proposal for extended producer responsibility for textiles

Background

The EU generates 12.6 million tonnes of textile waste per year. Every year, clothing and footwear alone account for 12 kg of waste per person in the EU. In line with the European Green Deal² and the Circular Economy Action Plan,³ the EU aims to increase the percentage of textile waste collected for re-use or recycling, which is currently only 22%. 

The EPR Textile Proposal would amend the Waste Framework Directive (WFD).⁴ The WFD already contains an obligation for Member States to establish  separate collections of textile waste by 2025. This proposal gives further substance to how Member States should structure their textile waste collection obligation. Further, the EPR Textile Proposal also clarifies what constitutes textile waste and what are considered reusable textiles.

The EPR Textile Proposal would shift the costs of collection of textile waste from the authorities (and, therefore, the tax payers) to the producers of textiles. Producers will cover the costs of management of textile waste, which, according to the EC “will also give them incentives to reduce waste and increase the circularity of textile products – designing better products from the start.”⁵

Key elements of the EPR Textile Proposal

The EPR Textile Proposal aims to broaden the producers’ responsibility regarding the separation, sorting, re-use and recycling of textile products. The key elements of the EPR Textile Proposal are:

• “Producers of textiles” – the obligations will apply to natural and legal persons making available textiles on the market for the first time whiting the territory of the EU (e.g., manufacturers, importers and distributer of textiles). Further, also sellers of textile related-products carrying out activities by means of distance communication directly to end-users – for example via online platforms – fall within the scope of the EPR Textile Proposal.
• “Textile, textile-related and footwear products” – the EPR Textile Proposal would apply to textile, textile-related and footwear products, which are listed in Annex IVc to the EPR Textile Proposal. Included are textile clothing, footwear, headgear, curtains, and bed linen. 
• National registers for textile producers – the EPR Textile Proposal is intended to create an obligation for member states to introduce a so-called ‘textile producer register’ in order to monitor the compliance of the producers with the initiated legislation. Producers of textiles will become required to submit an application for registration in each Member State where they make textiles available on the market for the first time. Producers will not be allowed to bring their textile products onto the market prior to their registration being confirmed by the respective Member State.
• Producers Responsibility Organisations – producers will be required to designate a so-called ‘producer responsibility organisation’ (PRO) which is a legal entity that organises the fulfilment of EPR obligations on behalf of the producers. The producers will be obliged to pay a financial contribution to the PRO. 
• Calculation of the financial contribution – the costs per producer will be calculated by way of ‘eco-modulation’; this is a principle which bases the costs to be paid on the environmental performance of textiles. These costs will be based on the weight of the products concerned and modulated on the basis of ecodesign-requirements.

National EPR legislation for textiles

Prior to the introduction of the EPR Textile Proposal, some European member states, including France and the Netherlands, had already adopted legislation similar to the EPR Textile Proposal.

The Netherlands

On 1 July 2023, the Extended Producer Responsibility for Textiles Decree (the Dutch EPR Decree) entered into force. In brief, the Dutch EPR Decree makes producers responsible for the waste management of textile products from 2025 onwards. The EPR Decree applies to producers of textiles who bring textiles onto the Dutch market for the first time. Key obligations for producers under the Dutch EPR Decree include:

• to report the expected amount of textiles to be brought onto the Dutch market to the relevant Dutch ministry;
• to create a discarded textile collection system;
• to prepare a percentage of the collected discarded textiles for recycling;
• to prepare a percentage of the collected, discarded textiles for reuse, of which a percentage of the textiles must be prepared for reuse specifically in the Netherlands; and
• to ensure that part of the collected textile waste is reused for clothing or household textiles (fire-to-fibre recycling).

Producers of textiles may give effect to the Dutch EPR Decree jointly with other producers, by means of joining the Dutch EPR Textile Foundation. This foundation is responsible for the obligations mentioned above, in exchange for a monetary contribution.

France

In France, the extended producer responsibility for textiles is regulated by two laws: the French law against waste and for a circular economy dated 10 February 2020 (the French Circular Economy Law) and the French Climate and Resilience Law dated 20 July 2021. These texts, which are being progressively implemented, apply to producers who market textile products for clothing, footwear, or household linen. 

They mainly provide for two sets of obligations: 

1. waste management obligations which include an obligation to organise the collection of discarded textiles either:

• by joining a collection system set up by a PRO (currently ReFashion in France) and paying it an eco-contribution; or 
• by creating an individual discarded textile collection system approved by the Ministry for the Environment, and;

2. labelling requirements, which include: 

• compulsory labelling of a specific logo and sorting instructions directly on the product, for both for textiles and their packaging; and 
• an upcoming compulsory labelling, specific to textiles and footwear, on the environmental impact of the product (water consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, etc.), which should enter into force in the course of 2024.

It is worth mentioning that the French labelling requirement regarding sorting information might be subject to change as it is currently under review at EU level after the EC initiated an infringement procedure against France in the beginning of 2023.

The UK perspective 

The UK is set to introduce a wide-ranging reform relating to EPR for packaging (see here our recent article on the topic which provides a briefing on the new rules that came into effect earlier this year). However, in contrast to the initiatives taken by some European member states, the UK has not included textiles in its EPR scheme and confirmed in February 2023 that an EPR scheme for textiles will not be introduced in the near future. 

However, recently the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs set out its policy goals for England in respect of a specific textile EPR scheme. These policy goals, some of which are listed below, indicate that an EPR scheme for textiles is still being contemplated:

• exploring how to deploy the EPR scheme in relation to textiles;
• promoting industry-led pilots to develop models for an EPR scheme for textiles;
• developing a textiles waste hierarchy; and
• exploring the potential to introduce measures for non-domestic premises to present reusable and recyclable textiles for separate collection as well as to require businesses to provide customer take back systems and banning separately collected material from being sent to landfill and energy from waste without prior sorting.

Going forward

The EPR Textile Proposal will need to be considered and agreed by the European Parliament and the Council before it is adopted. If the EPR Textile Proposal is adopted, member states would then have a further eighteen months to transpose the directive into national law. Member states need to ensure that EPR schemes are in place within 30 months following the entry into force of the directive.

In light of the EPR schemes already introduced by the EU for, among others, batteries, packaging waste, and electronics, we expect the EPR Textile Proposal to be adopted as well. We note that it may well be that the content of the EPR Textile Proposal will be amended before it is adopted.

Aside from monitoring the EPR Textile Proposal, producers of textiles should prepare themselves by considering how they will design their extended producer responsibilities.