This week’s preliminary agreement on the revision of the EU’s Waste Framework Directive (WFD) "marks a significant step forward for the circular economy and textile waste management", according to the European Recycling Industries' Confederation (EuRIC). "However, urgent support is still required to address the unprecedented crisis currently facing the EU's textile reuse and recycling sector", the organisation commented.
The revised Directive introduces mandatory extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes for textiles across all EU Member States. Textile manufacturers will be required contribute to financing the costs of collecting post-consumer clothes and household textiles and sorting, recycling or preparing their products for reuse. EuRIC strongly supports this move, but deplores the 30-month implementation timeline, "given the current crisis in the post-consumer textile sector and the immediate need for support to prevent further disruption".
"The EU's commitment to mandatory EPR for textiles is a pivotal step towards producer accountability for the garments and textiles they place on the market. But it's not enough to resolve the current crisis in textile reuse and recycling," said Mariska Boer, president of EuRIC's textiles branch.
Infrastructure, circular economy and jobs at risk
"EPR is a transitional tool to shift from a linear to a circular value chain. However, without ambitious eco-design criteria and mandatory uptake of post-consumer recycled textile content, textile recycling will always lack the necessary business model, threatening the current infrastructure, circular textile economy and thousands of green jobs", Ms Boer cautioned.
While urgent measures and further improvements to the WFD are needed in EuRIC's view, the umbrella organisation welcomes positive aspects of the provisional agreement. EuRIC considers the inclusion of reporting requirements for social economy entities (SEEs) a positive aspect, which will ensure these entities' "transparent and fair participation in EPR schemes".
EuRIC also considers the provision allowing member states to ecomodulate EPR fees depending on the products' extrinsic durability a positive element of the revised WFD. It is "another key step in tackling textile waste and ensuring that the price of ultra-fast fashion reflects the environmental damage it causes".
The organisation also expects that the European Commission's commitment to review the scheme's effectiveness and set clear targets by 2029 will drive progress in the management of textile waste
Furthermore, EuRIC welcomes the exclusion of commercial reuse operators from paying EPR fees for the time being. However, the EU Commission will have to assess by 2029 the possibility for member states to introduce such EPR fees for placing second-hand clothes on the market. EuRIC stresses that EPR should remain an application of the polluter pays principle and that reusing clothing has a positive environmental impact.
The ongoing crisis in the European textiles recycling and reuse industry has also been documented in EUWID's bi-monthly reporting on the German waste textiles market.
