By June 17th 2027, all EU member states must have introduced producer responsibility for textiles into national legislation.
Below, we outline what this means for you.
Producer responsibility will cover clothing textiles, household textiles and footwear. It is optional for individual countries to also include mattresses. The specific tariff codes can be found in the annex to the directive.
Reporting of data on quantities placed on the market must be based on weight.
In the French system, reporting is done by unit, but it is assumed that all EU member states will be required to collect data in kilograms from 2028. There is, however, a provision allowing reporting in quantities where relevant.
Producers must cover the costs of waste management for end-of-life textiles.
This means producers must establish systems for collection, sorting and channelling to reuse, preparation for reuse and recycling. Collection should, however, be organised in collaboration with municipalities and social economy enterprises.
Specifically, producers will be required to finance the scaling up of recycling, particularly fibre-to-fibre, to increase processing capacity in the EU beyond current levels.
It must also be ensured to a greater extent that only textiles fit for reuse are exported from the EU. The volumes of collected waste textiles are steadily increasing, and waste disguised as second-hand textiles must not be exported from the EU.
Producers’ obligations should be organised collectively, so that in practice it is producer responsibility organisations such as Tekstilretur that fulfil the obligations on behalf of producers.
Membership of a producer responsibility organisation is therefore expected to become mandatory.
Read more about membership here.
Social economy enterprises must continue to be permitted to operate their own collection points with a location equivalent to or better than those operated by producers.
Producers must also ensure free collection of the waste sorted out by social economy enterprises at their own collection points.
Specific rules are directed at online platforms to prevent free-riding.
Providers of online platforms are obliged to ensure that producers using their platforms are correctly registered before being permitted to use the platform.
It must also be easier for authorities to enforce the rules against online platforms and hold them accountable if free-riders are found on their platforms.
Eco-modulation must be harmonised at EU level.
Eco-modulation should create economic incentives for producers to make products that meet certain requirements making them better for the environment. The requirements are to be based on the EcoDesign rules, which are not yet finalised.
Member states may consider introducing criteria in eco-modulation to reduce the incentive for fast fashion and ultra-fast fashion.
Micro-enterprises will be subject to producer responsibility one year later than other producers.
It should be ensured that reporting obligations are minimised and that producer responsibility for micro-enterprises is implemented on a proportional basis.
Micro-enterprises are defined as businesses employing fewer than ten persons AND with an annual turnover and annual balance sheet of no more than €2 million.
Producer responsibility must enter into force by 17th April 2028.