EU bans destruction of unsold apparel and footwear

The European Union has formally adopted measures prohibiting the destruction of unsold apparel and footwear. The rules sit within the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), the framework that is also driving Digital Product Passports across textile and fashion categories.

The intent is straightforward: unsold stock that cannot be sold, donated, or reused must not simply be incinerated or landfilled. Brands will be required to report on the volumes of unsold products and what happens to them, creating a new disclosure obligation that sits alongside the broader data and traceability demands of the DPP.

This matters because it signals how ESPR is expanding in scope. The regulation is not only about product design and material data; it is increasingly about the full lifecycle of a product, including what happens when it does not sell. Brands that have not yet started mapping their end-of-life processes will find themselves caught short.

Verified data is central here. Declarations about unsold stock volumes are easy to make; substantiated, auditable records are harder. That gap is exactly where compliance risk concentrates.

Source: ESPR news