November 17, 2025
In early September, the European Parliament approved a proposal to revise the Waste Framework Directive. The revisions introduce mandatory extended producer responsibility (EPR) for textiles and set binding food waste reduction targets. This follows a broader trend across industries where regulators are expanding manufacturers’ responsibilities throughout the entire product lifecycle.
Key measures
Significantly for the textile industry, the revised Directive establishes harmonised rules on the EPR of textile producers and fashion brands. This includes paying a required fee to help fund waste collection, sorting, and recycling. The fee will be assessed based on how circular and sustainable the design of a company’s product is. Parliament specifically noted that “Member States should also address ultra-fast fashion and fast fashion practices when deciding on financial contributions to the EPR schemes.”
The EPR rules apply to any producer placing products on the EU market, regardless of where they are based. Online sellers are included in the scope of the new rule. Since the legislation is a Directive, each Member State will transpose it into national law and set their own national textile EPR schemes. This will likely result in a range of requirements across Member States, creating a challenging compliance landscape for textile producers.
The product categories impacted by the expanded Directive include clothing, footwear, accessories, household linens, curtains, and potentially mattresses as identified by individual Member States.
The updated legislation will also introduce binding food waste reduction targets that must be met by Member States by 31 December 2030. These include mandates to reduce food processing and manufacturing waste by 10% as compared to 2021-2023 levels. Retail, restaurants, food services, and households have a goal to reduce food waste by 30% per capita. Each Member State must also identify economic operators who have a significant role in food waste. Those entities must take measures to facilitate the donation of unsold food that is safe for human consumption.
Impacts for business
The revised Directive entered into force on 16 October 2025. Member States will have 20 months from that date to implement their textile EPR schemes. Businesses should expect the new systems to be in place across the EU by 2028.
As we’ve noted in recent blogs, the EU has undertaken a broader effort to advance regulations in pursuit of a circular economy. In July, the European Commission released a five-year working plan to continue implementing the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and Energy Labelling Regulation. The working plan identified the high impact categories that will need to adopt the ecodesign and energy labelling requirements first. The EU also advanced a proposed end-of-life vehicles (ELV) regulation in September, which aims to make the automotive sector more sustainable.
With these expanded responsibilities on the horizon, businesses should begin reviewing their products to determine if there are ways they could make them more sustainable or improve their recyclability. Manufacturers will have to pay higher fees for products that are harder to recycle or have a larger environmental impact. These goods may also face greater scrutiny from national authorities.
As regulators continue to hold producers responsible for additional aspects of the product lifecycle, it remains critical to have in place a thorough and tested recall response plan and rapid response capabilities for in-market crises. Any event has the potential to turn catastrophic for a business, but proper preparation and the ability to react quickly can mitigate the impact of such a situation.
Trusted by the world’s leading brands, Sedgwick Brand Protection has managed more than 7,000 of the most time-critical and sensitive product recalls in 150+ countries and 50+ languages, over 30 years. To find out more about our product recall and incident response solutions, visit our website here.
