EU textile experts say what they want from EPR


At the Textiles Recycling Expo Europe in Brussels, circularity leaders gave their views on the pitfalls and opportunities that EU regulations may generate for the textile sector


The EU requires member states to have laws for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in textiles passed by June 2027 and fully operational by April 2028. Against this backdrop, EPR dominated the conversation at the Textiles Recycling Expo Europe conference in June, where policymakers, recyclers, brands and industry bodies agreed that Europe’s textile circularity ambitions depend on getting the rules, and the money behind them, right. With separate collection of textile waste already mandatory across the EU and recycling capacity still some way from ready, speakers pointed to a widening gap between regulation and infrastructure. Across the roundtables and keynotes,


16 Textiles Loop • Autumn 2026


the same questions kept returning: how EPR fees should be modulated, how schemes can be harmonized across member states without becoming overcomplicated, where funding should flow along the value chain, and how recycled content targets under the forthcoming Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation can create real demand for textile-to-textile recycling rather than simply meeting compliance requirements. The opening roundtable discussion


called The True Cost of Textiles: Waste, Responsibility and Europe’s Future was chaired by Adam Mansell, CEO, UK Fashion and Textile. He asked the panellists: “From your perspectives, where does the greatest structural failure currently lie? Is it in


collection? Is it in processing? Economics or political will?” Vincenzo Gente, Policy Officer in the


European Commission’s Directorate-Gener- al for Environment, said the Commission has been addressing the issues of textile circularity in different ways, not only looking at collection and recycling but also considering the market in its entirety. The regulations affecting textiles include: the Waste Framework Directive, which is introducing EPR for textiles; the upcoming Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) that is looking at textiles as one of the target product groups; and the Waste Shipment regulations. “You can see that these three initiatives


are all interconnected,” he said. “So for me, the point is to look at the issues from a broad perspective, addressing all the different steps.” Diane Woods, Global Head of Business


Development and Product at Reju, indicated the importance of EPR, calling it “almost


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