EuRIC Textiles has unveiled five key policy recommendations, urging EU policymakers to actively support textiles circularity by shaping an industry environment where innovation thrives, investments in circularity are rewarded, and the textile reuse and recycling industry flourishes as a pillar of sustainability.
URGENT CALL: The EU Recyclers’ Manifesto: Increasing textiles circularity by 2030: Threading up circularity by EuRIC’s Textiles branch, the voice of Europe’s textile reuse and recycling operators, highlights the unprecedented crisis facing the region’s textile collection and recycling sector, worsened by rising costs, low demand, and the impact of ultra-fast fashion.
- To address these and achieve textiles circularity by 2030, EuRIC Textiles calls for extending product lifecycles, increasing recycled textile fibre use, and boosting textile recycling, which is currently limited to less than 1% of materials being recycled into new clothing.
- With each EU citizen generating approximately 16 kg of textile waste annually, yet only 4.4 kg being separately collected for reuse and recycling, urgent measures are needed to prevent textile waste from ending up in landfills or incinerators.
THE MANIFESTO to achieve circularity by 2030
1. Introduce Ecodesign Requirements for Textiles: Ecodesign requirements for textiles should become standard practice. Proper design has to ensure that products can be easily repaired, reused, disassembled, and recycled at the end of the life, ultimately creating a closed loop system
- The European Commission should take an ambitious, stepwise approach to defining and regularly reviewing ecodesign performance requirements. This is particularly crucial as ultra-fast fashion continues to degrade the quality of textiles collected in the used clothing bins, making reuse and recycling harder due to the increased use of cheap synthetic fibres and low-quality production.
Recycled content requirements: Mandating the use of textile-to-textile recycled content in new garments will drive the demand for recycled materials and stimulate sorting and recycling technologies. The EU Commission should narrowly define recycled content, to exclude open-loop recycled content from i.e. PET bottles.
- Recycled textile fibres should mainly come from post-consumer textile waste (i.e. clothing that have been worn and disposed of by the end-user) generated in the EU and must be produced sustainably (meeting specific human rights, social, and environmental minimum requirements for the production).
- All efforts should be put in ensuring proper end-of-life treatment for post-consumer textile waste:
- The mandatory separate collection of used textiles in the EU as of 1 January 2025, is likely to increase the amount of textile waste collected, the volume of non-reusable used clothing, and thus the potential infeed for textile recycling facilities. largely
Recyclability requirements: Recyclability is dependent on ongoing developments in recycling technology (mechanical, chemical or thermal recycling).
- The EU Commission should ensure that recyclability requirements support rather than hinder, technological progress.
2) Strengthen Fair Trade of Used Textiles: Introducing EU End-of-Waste (EOW) criteria for both reuse and recycling is crucial to reflect the specific needs of the textile waste stream. EuRIC Textiles calls for EOW criteria designed to create a well-functioning EU market for reusable and recycled materials and support the implementation of waste management and ecodesign legislation:
- EOW for reuse can be granted when a textile fraction is deemed suitable for reuse without further processing (since a professional sorter can assess if textiles are suitable for reuse)
- EOW for recycling can be granted when the output of the recycling process is equivalent to primary raw materials and ready for direct conversion into new textile products or other types of goods.
EU policymakers should focus on tackling the illegal shipment of textile waste disguised as used clothing, which evades waste regime controls under the revised Waste Shipment Regulation (WSR).
- While Denmark, France, and Sweden proposed in March 2024, to amend the Basel Convention to require prior written notification and consent for non-hazardous textile waste shipments, this measure will not end the problem. Instead, it will worsen the challenges already faced by Europe’s textile sorting and recycling companies.
To ensure that only second-hand textiles, not textile waste, are shipped outside the waste regime, establishing a detailed sorting process prior to any shipment is crucial.
- EuRIC Textiles strongly supports the establishment of harmonised EU sorting criteria to ensure that only second-hand textiles, which meet the destination’s requirements, are shipped outside the waste regime, to be reused.
- Already in 2021, EuRIC Textiles had established such criteria guiding sorting companies on proper collection, preparation for reuse and preparation for recycling.
Future policy measures should effectively combat illegal shipments while ensuring they do not
- place excessive administrative burdens on companies that already comply with the rules, and
- overlook the socio-economic impact on receiving countries.
3) Introduce EPR Schemes for Textiles Clearly Supporting the Reuse and Recycling Sector: The revised Waste Framework Directive (WFD) requiring all EU Member States to establish EPR schemes for textiles in the next years marks a significant step forward for the circular economy and textile waste management.
- These schemes must be designed as a transitional tool to support, improve and scale-up textile waste management, reuse and recycling, and align with the mandatory separate collection of used and waste textiles in the EU starting on 1st January 2025.
- It is also key to ensure effective and strict enforcement of EPR schemes for textiles across the EU, to make sure that every producer, regardless of location and including e-commerce, comply with the EPR obligations. Otherwise, this system will not be sustained over time and will not achieve its goals.
- On top of establishing EPR schemes, EuRIC Textiles calls for reduced VAT rate on second-hand products and repair services to boost market demand for used textiles, stimulating the whole value chain. Furthermore, recycling services in the EU should also benefit from lower VAT rates to enhance competitiveness against virgin material production.
4) Balance Chemicals Legislation: Ensuring Compliance Without Harming the Circular Economy: Protecting human health and the environment is essential for textile recyclers.
- Effective toxic-free product design (by limiting the use of substances of concern in textile products and complying with REACH) would significantly reduce the need for energy-intensive technologies to recycle waste textiles. The demand is for transparency across the entire value chain.
- As chemical regulations and research continue to evolve, some chemicals permitted today may face future restrictions or stricter limits under REACH. This poses a significant challenge to the circular economy, as textiles currently deemed compliant could later be banned, forcing the textile reuse and recycling industry to manage the consequences of these outdated materials.
- A pragmatic risk-based approach is thus essential, balancing product safety with circular economy’s goals. Future chemicals legislation and restrictions should continue guaranteeing fair competition between recycled textiles and virgin raw materials as well as between first-hand and second-hand textiles by providing legal clarity and economically viable compliance pathways.
- Small and medium-sized enterprises, which form the backbone of the textile recycling sector, need proportionate and technically feasible compliance requirements to support long-term sustainability and prevent unnecessary landfilling or incineration.
In this context, EuRIC calls for:
- Establishing practical, risk-based thresholds for recycled textiles, reflecting the technical realities of mechanical and chemical recycling.
- Implementing a proportionate and realistic monitoring framework that accounts for the challenges of tracking thousands of substances, particularly in post-consumer textiles.
- Enhancing collaboration between regulators, recyclers, and brands to align product design with recycling capabilities and compliance requirements.
5) Improve Consumer and Textile Sorter Information with an Effective Digital Product Passport and Clear Labels: The DPP needs to be designed for easy access by sorters, especially by avoiding an overload of unnecessary data.
- The DPP’s technology will be particularly key by taking into account the specificities of the sorting process and allowing for instant verification.
- Incentives should be encouraged to support the DPP’s deployment in the reuse and recycling sector.
- EuRIC Textiles calls for more funding at both EU and national levels into research, innovation and the scaling up of infrastructure for the high-quality manual and/or automatic composition sorting of textiles.
ABOUT: EuRIC is the voice of Europe’s recycling industries, representing 80 members across 24 EU & EFTA countries, and over 5,500 companies. It drives a 95 billion EUR contribution to the EU economy and supports 300,000 green, local jobs. As a catalyst in Europe’s green transition, EuRIC is driving the industrial shift that boosts EU competitiveness, resilience, and strategic autonomy.
- EuRIC’s Textiles Branch (EuRIC Textiles) comprises national recycling federations active in the collection, sorting, reuse and recycling of used textiles. As reuse and recycling operators, EuRIC Textiles’ members actively contribute to the EU’s decarbonisation efforts.
WHAT THEY SAID:
By creating an environment where innovation thrives and circularity is rewarded, EuRIC aims to reduce the textile sector’s environmental impact, boost textile circularity in Europe, and create new economic opportunities for reuse and recycling operators. Our Textiles Manifesto outlines the steps to achieve this.
— Mariska Boer
President
EuRIC, Textiles Branch
