Main mandatory regulations arising from the European Union’s strategy for sustainable and circular textiles
Navigating the European regulatory environment might prove messy and daunting. This article will guide you in understanding the main mandatory legislation affecting the textile sector by 2030.
Let’s start in December 2019 with the launch of the European Green Deal. The Deal is a package of initiatives that aims to set the European Union (EU) on the path to a green transition, with the ultimate goal of reaching climate neutrality by 2050. The European Green Deal action areas are climate, energy, environment and oceans, agriculture, transport, industry, research and innovation, finance, and lifestyle.
One of the main building blocks of the European Green Deal is the new Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP), originally adopted in 2015 and revamped in March 2020. The plan aims to decouple economic growth from resource use and shift to circular systems in production and consumption — key to achieving EU climate neutrality by 2050. The new CEAP announces initiatives along the entire life cycle of products. The measures introduced in the new CEAP focus on high-impact sectors with high potential for circularity, such as packaging, plastics, and textiles.
The proposed textile strategy is the EU strategy for sustainable and circular textiles, which started in 2020 and lists several key actions the Commission intends to take in the textile industry. The strategy looks at the entire lifecycle of textile products and proposes coordinated actions to change how textiles are produced and consumed by 2030. The main action areas are:
The main mandatory regulations resulting from the EU strategy for sustainable and circular textiles are, accordingly to action areas:
The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) entered into force in July 2024 and aims to significantly improve the circularity, energy performance, and other environmental sustainability aspects of products placed on the EU market. Implementation is expected to take place by 2025/2026.
The EU Commission will adopt and regularly update working plans, setting out lists of products and measures that will be assessed to ensure the public and stakeholders are well informed of what is planned under ESPR. The ESPR text requires the EU Commission to adopt and publish the first ESPR working plan within nine months of ESPR’s entry into force in the first half of 2025. The working plan will cover a minimum period of 3 years.
The main working areas under the ESPR to promote sustainability in product design are:
- Product Durability, Reusability, Upgradability, and Reparability:
- Reduced presence of substances of concern that inhibit circularity
- Energy Efficiency and Resource Efficiency
- Recycled content to facilitate market and use of recycled fibres
- Remanufacturing and recycling infrastructure and technology for fibre-to-fibre recycling
- Carbon and environmental footprint management and reduction
- Information requirements mandated to include Digital Product Passport
In 2023, the Commission proposed a revision to the Waste Framework Directive (WFD) (initially created in 2008) focusing on textile waste. Under the Waste Framework Directive, Member States must set up a separate collection of textiles by January 1st, 2025. For this to happen, the EU’s separate collection, sorting, reuse, and recycling capacities must be strengthened. This requires significant investments to build infrastructure and develop new technological solutions. The policy measures under the proposed revision of the WFD aim to support the required finance and harmonize information and approaches related to the collection, sorting, reuse, preparing for reuse and recycling infrastructure that will be needed once the separate collection obligation unfolds its effect.
The proposed revision to the WFD proposes the introduction of mandatory and harmonized Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes for textiles in all EU Member States. EPR schemes require producers to take responsibility for their products’ entire lifecycle, particularly at the end of their product’s life.
The overall deadline to meet the targets defined in the WFD remains 2035, but specific targets within the WFD may have different deadlines.
Also, in 2023, the EU Commission launched a plan to update and revise the Textile Labelling Regulation (implemented in 2009), with a particular focus on environmentally relevant information (revision planned for the 4th quarter of 2024). Currently, textile labels are mandatory in the EU for textiles intended for sale to the end consumer. One of the main objectives of the labels is to promote transparency and help consumers make informed choices by providing accurate information about the textile products’ composition, care instructions, and country of origin.
The European Union regulatory landscape is rapidly evolving, and staying up-to-date is crucial for businesses.
This article was written by Inês Vasconcelos
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