EFS Consulting
08/30/2023

Proposal for an EU Regulation on a Circular Economy for Textiles

The EU Commission has proposed rules to make producers responsible for the full lifecycle of textile products and to support the sustainable management of textile waste across the EU.

The rules shall amend the Waste Framework Directive to include a harmonized Extended Producer Responsibility Scheme for textile products.

Against the backdrop of 12.6 million tonnes of textile waste in the EU per year and only 22% of post-consumer textile waste being reused or recycled, the EU aims to deliver on its Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles. The Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Framework shall make the separate collection of textile mandatory in 2025.

As part of the EPR scheme, used clothes shall be incentivised for re-use, textile waste increasingly recycled and the circularity of products increased by better designs, innovation and circular economy business models of the producers. Illegal exporting of textile waste shall also be stopped via a proposed draft regulation on waste shipments. Furthermore, producers will be made responsible for their products along the value chain. This includes financial contributions to the management of textile waste, based on the environmental performance of textiles, called ‘eco-modulation’.

The proposal also yields to harmonize EU law, requiring EU Member States to implement textile waste separation and using financial contributions by producers to finance the separate collection, recycling and reusing management. Currently, only a few Member States like France have introduced a mandatory EPR system for textiles.

The proposal by the European Commission is now before the European Parliament and the Council for consideration on whether it shall undergo the ordinary legislative and can be viewed HERE.

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