Shifting landscape of compliance: Textiles
Understand what is classified as a textile, the associated environmental impacts of the industry and how this is impacting regulatory developments across the UK and wider EU.
What are textiles?
Textiles are materials made of natural or synthetic fibres and have a broad range of applications across products ranging from apparel, homeware, automotive and healthcare. The textile sector is a significant contributor to the global economy and continues to grow rapidly with the European Parliament estimating the global textile fibre production will have doubled from 2000 to 2030.
The European Commission define textiles products through The Waste Framework Directive (WFD) as ‘products containing at least 80% by weight of textile fibres, include leisure apparel and clothing accessories, household/interior textiles as well as technical textiles’. A definition for textiles in the UK is not yet formally confirmed.
The textile industry has a number of environmental impacts:
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Water pollution and use – textile production can be extremely water intensive, while production and washing can lead to water degradation with chemicals and microplastics. To make a single cotton t-shirt, 2,700 litres of fresh water is needed, which equates to one person’s drinking water for 2.5 years.
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Intensive land use – the production of raw materials used to produce textiles like cotton are extremely land intensive. According to the European Parliament the textile sector is the third largest source of land use in 2020.
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Significant carbon impact - complex supply chains and energy-intensive production methods, mean textiles generate 8 -10% of global carbon emissions, more emissions than the aviation and shipping industries combined.
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Over consumption of natural resources – the growing demand for clothing exacerbated by the proliferation of the fast fashion business model, means there is a consistent throughput of natural resources required to meet demand.
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Low reuse and recycling levels – textile waste management does not align with the waste hierarchy, leading to environmental harm via increased greenhouse gas emissions from incineration and landfilling. Less than 22% of post-consumer textile waste is collected separately for re-use or recycling, while only 1% of used clothes are recycled into new clothes.
What is being done to manage textile impact?
Action to tackle the textile problem has been slow, for England and wider UK:
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The Resource and Waste Strategy England, 2018 sets priority for a textile extended producer responsibility (EPR) for at least all clothing as well as other household and commercial textiles like bed linens. The strategy also references aligning with the EU for concepts like ‘eco-design’ and collaborative textile reuse.
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Scotland’s Circular Economy Road Map, 2024 considers textiles a priority product, with consultations on collections and modernisation of recycling services noted.
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The Beyond Recycling Strategy Wales, 2021 discusses strengthening infrastructure and collection networks for textiles, focusing on investment in handling, sorting and reprocessing infrastructure. The Welsh government also focus on introduction of EPR for textiles.
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Draft Environment Strategy for Northern Ireland, 2022 references textiles as an important sector for transition to circular economy.
In line with the polluter-pays principle, producers placing textiles on the market take the financial responsibility for their management at their end-of-life. This will provide incentive to reduce waste and increase circularity for textile products.
Alternatively, some voluntary initiatives in the UK have been instigated:
The UK Fashion and Textile Association has projects to develop:
- An industry-led pilot to develop a model for an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme for textiles
- A sorting and recycling demonstrator
- An industry-led Circular Fashion Innovation Network
WRAP’s (Waste and Resources Action Programme) Textiles 2030 initiative aims to accelerate the UK's move towards a circular textile economy. It focuses on designing products for longevity, improving recycling processes, and fostering collaboration across the supply chain to reduce environmental impacts.
Action to tackle textiles in the EU has been slightly more comprehensive:
Some member states have already established textile EPR schemes, this includes France, Netherlands and Hungary. For more information regarding these specific schemes, please contact solutions@beyond.ly.
Textiles are considered within the EU WFD, which acts as the core waste legislation for the EU setting basic concepts and definitions relating to waste management.
The EU WFD was revised in 2018 to implement circular economy action plan, increase recycling targets, strengthen the concept of EPR, and mandate separate textile waste collections by 1 January 2025, requiring municipalities to divert textiles from general waste.
A proposed revision was published in 2023 the European Commission proposed a targeted revision of the Waste Framework Directive, with a focus on textiles waste & implementing textiles EPR. The 2023 revision is expected to be approved in mid/late-2025. EU Member States will then have 18-months to transpose into national law and implement textiles EPR schemes (likely to be in 2027, although exact date is still undecided).
What are EU Member States required to do under the revised Waste Framework Directive?
It is likely producers will start to see EU member states implement these actions from 2027.
- Define roles and responsibilities. Including specific obligations for online platforms.
- Establish a/multiple Producer Responsibility Organisation/s (PRO/s).
- Establish a national register of producers, which links to other national registers across EU states.
- Establish fee mechanism, for producers to cover costs. Potential for fees to be modulated based on Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) criteria – tbc.
- Carry out a compositional survey of collected mixed municipal waste every 5 years.
- Textile reuse and recycling performance targets to be set, yet to be determined at EU level.
- Collect data from producers on textiles products made available on the market annually.
- Establish separate collection system for used and waste textiles, across the territory, for re-use, preparation for re-use, and recycling.
- Share information with consumers on sustainable consumption, re-use, and end-of life management of textiles.
- Take corrective action based on the results of compositional survey.
In the EU textiles are also captured in scope of the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) to enhance durability and recyclability and enhanced product lifecycle data reporting under Digital Product Passports (DPPs). During the first half of 2025 the European Commission will adopt an ESPR working plan, prioritising products for development of product rules. Although exact requirements are still to be determined, it is confirmed each textile product sold in the EU will need a basic DPP by 2027.
Beyondly are affiliate members of WRAP’s Textiles 2030 initiative, offering a range of services both international and UK focused to support textile focused businesses achieve compliance and prepare for incoming regulations. If you are part of the textiles industry and want to talk to our resource and waste experts, please reach out to Beyondly at solutions@beyond.ly
