Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes in the textile sector are one of the central measures in the text approved by Parliament’s Environment Committee to improve the reuse and recycling of textile waste. But according to some associations, without reducing the production of materials and setting targets for waste prevention, a solution is still partial.
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With the approval by the Environment Committee of the European Parliament in February of the proposal for a revision of the Waste Framework Directive the European Union acts on the transition to a circular economy also in the textile sector.
Within 18 months of the entry into force of the new Directive, EU countries will have to establish extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes: those who produce, distribute and import textile products into the internal market will be obliged to start a system for the collection of clothes and fabrics and to cover their costs, with the aim of improving high quality reuse and recycling.
In addition, by 2025, Member States will be responsible for ensuring the separate collection of textile products for reuse and recycling of materials.
This revision improves the previous version of the Directive by extending the application of the new rules to all textile products, including non-domestic ones: clothing and accessories, blankets, bedding, curtains, hats, footwear, mattresses, carpets, and products containing textile-like materials such as leather, reconstituted leather, rubber or plastic.
The definition of importers is also extended, with the inclusion of online sales platforms.
Finally, a more efficient analysis of mixed municipal waste is planned, in order to collect more precise data on textile waste not collected correctly, and supervision of exported used textile products.
However, according to the Zero Waste Europe association, the Rreuse committee and the European Environmental Bureau network of environmental associations (EEB) (https://eeb.org/), there is still room for improvement: the conditions of the current proposal are welcomed, but it is stressed that the focus is still on increasing the share of recycling, rather than on the prevention and reuse of textiles.
According to these groups, considering the estimated of textile waste produced annually in the territory of the European Union (about 12,6 million tonnes), it is important that EPR systems are focused on reducing the resources used, through the waste hierarchy that places the prevention and reuse of textiles above their recycling, recovery and disposal.
For example, manufacturers should be encouraged to design items with a view to durability, reuse and repairability, and support the resale of used clothing.
In those States where EPR systems (for which the producer of goods is responsible for end-of-life) have been put into practice, they have had a positive impact on recycling, reuse and re-use rates, as shown by France, first in Europe with a Law of 2007 on extended producer responsibility: from 2014 to today the collection rate in France has increased by 40%, and in 2022 59,5% of the collected textile products was reused and 31,3% recycled. Recently, the Netherlands has provided for a similar mechanism, while in Italy the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security is working on a draft document to regulate the mechanism, but there are unclear points and doubts raised by the industry.
The legislative process of the proposed revision of the Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC) began at the instigation of the European Commission in July 2023. The vote was scheduled for the European Parliament’s plenary assembly in March 2024, before the European elections in June. It will therefore be the new EU Parliament that will follow the dossier in the subsequent negotiations with the European Council, to arrive at the publication of the new directive in the Official Journal by 31 December 2024.
Alessia Santoro
For further informations:
EPR nel settore tessile, bene ma non basta: dubbi sulla revisione della direttiva quadro sui rifiuti (Economia circolare)
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