EU makes textile sector responsible for waste recycling

Clothing and shoe producers will soon have to pay for the collection and recycling of their products after use in the European Union. The legislation, voted in the European Parliament today, will also apply to companies from outside the Union, from Asos to Temu.

Producers pay for their waste

The responsibility for textile waste will soon fall directly on the producers: they will have to to cover the costs of collection, sorting and recycling through new “extended producer responsibility” (EPR) schemes, which all member states must set up within thirty months. Micro-enterprises will have an extra year to adapt.