ESPR Insights

Revised Waste Framework Directive enters into force for textiles

29 June 2026

waste framework directive textiles circularity extended producer responsibility

Photo: Edhem ŞEŞE / Unsplash

The revised Waste Framework Directive has entered into force. For textiles, the revision tightens the rules around waste prevention, reuse, and extended producer responsibility (EPR), meaning brands that place garments on the EU market become legally accountable for what happens to those products at end of life.

This sits alongside, not inside, ESPR, but the two frameworks are closely linked. ESPR will set ecodesign requirements for textiles upstream (materials, durability, recyclability), while the Waste Framework Directive governs what happens downstream. Brands will need to satisfy both simultaneously.

The practical implication is that supply-chain data collected for a Digital Product Passport, fibre composition, recycled content, disassembly instructions, will also be the data EPR schemes need to calculate fees and verify claims. Collecting it once, accurately, beats collecting it twice under pressure.

Source: ESPR news.

What it means: Brands should map which EU markets trigger EPR obligations under the revised Directive and confirm that the product data they are already gathering for DPP purposes covers the fibre, recycled-content, and end-of-life fields those schemes will require. Factories supplying into EU brands should expect requests for that data to become contractual requirements sooner than expected.

Source: ESPR news ↗