Joint position paper on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for textiles

The separate collection of textiles will become mandatory in the EU from January 2025 and Member States will need to put in place an appropriate legislative framework and infrastructure [1].

To this end, the European Commission has mandated Member States to introduce Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes for textiles in its proposal for a revision of the WFD [2]. This milestone comes with great risks for the re-use sector and beyond. Preserving municipal responsibility and existing collection systems run by social enterprises is key to mitigating those risks and ensuring that EPR schemes function as intended by EU legislation.

Municipal Waste Europe (MWE) and RREUSE are issuing these joint recommendations for future textile EPR schemes to ask policy makers to ensure:

1. Accounting for the diversity of national contexts and for the vulnerability of social economy
2. A fair representation of all actors in the design, functioning and governance of EPR schemes
3. Comprehensive cost coverage through EPR schemes
4. Preventing a race to the bottom
5. Separate EPR schemes for bulky waste with textile composition