“Our ask is simple: direct EPR funding to recyclers” ANDREAS DORNER, MANAGING DIRECTOR, RE&UP


the great equalizer” which will tackle the costs involved in building textile circularity in Europe. Christian-Yves Crépet, Ambassador and


Honorary Member of the Board at Petcore Europe, warned that EPR in textiles will be more complex than it was in PET packag- ing and will need co-ordination. Mansell agreed that unless EU-wide EPR in textiles is coordinated, with agreement about eco-modulation and fee generation, “it’s going to become more complex rather than less”.


Gente said the Commission is trying to


ensure that there is coordination and harmonization between member states on EPR. He said an important point in the EPR for textiles is that the fees that producers will have to pay should be modulated according to sustainable requirements that are set under the ESPR. “We are working together [in different


Commission teams] to find the best way to have these criteria selected and to be then effectively translated in criteria for modulating the EPR fees. We don’t know [yet] which would be the criteria that will be considered for ESPR or for the eco-mod- ulation of EPR fees,” he said, indicating that this work is ongoing.


T2T Alliance’s desires The thoughts of those lobbying the Commission on ESPR and EPR were aired in the following discussion by members of the Textile-to-Textile Alliance. Beth Vosper, Senior Impact and Sustainability Manager at Circ, said that the alliance thinks that if ESPR sets open-loop recycled content targets for producers, there should also be closed-loop sub-targets. The T2T Alliance wants these to be measured at portfolio level and must be by fibre type so that a clear demand signal is provided to manage all the different types of textile waste. “The challenge is if we only focus on a


broad open-loop perspective, we’re not going to drive a system change, we’re going to solve a compliance issue, an accounting problem, and in reality, this open-loop content is already on the market, it’s


Members of the T2T Alliance discussed the planned Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation. Image: AMI


Panellists and audience at the roundtable called From


Commitment to Action. Image: AMI


already in brand products,” said Vosper. The T2T Alliance is also focused on the


need for improved collecting and sorting to be funded through EPR. Andreas Dorner, Managing Director at RE&UP, said “EPR can play a key role. And as long as the money goes to the right actors in the chain, well, our take is that a meaningful share must go to recyclers and pre-processors. Why? Because post-consumer waste requires significant sorting and pre-processing and that costs money. What we need across this industry is high quality feedstock at a price that makes sense. And we currently don’t have that. So our ask is simple, direct EPR funding to recyclers. And we also want to see a harmonized legislation across the EU member states to minimize friction and maximize circular impact.”


The role of brands The issue of collection was discussed in a roundtable called From Commitment to Action: The Role of Brands in Textiles Recycling. Julie-Marlène Pelissier, Head of Sustainability Region Europe South at H&M, and Erik Lagerblad, CEO at Looper Textile, discussed their collaboration in H&M’s take-back scheme. Pelissier indicated another benefit of the partnership, in addition to feedstock collection, is that H&M receives feedback and gains traceabil- ity insights about where its textiles go. A study into the economics of textile-


to-textile recycling was presented by Robert van de Kerkhof, CEO at ReHubs, in a keynote address. The organisation wants to encourage investments leading to about 2.7m tonnes of capacity by 2035 as that is when the economics of recycling become much healthier. “We believe that if we have 2.7m tonnes, we’re reaching a tipping point,” he said.


Getting to that scale will take a lot of


capital investment and there are challenges along the way. He said: “How do we manage


Textiles Loop • Autumn 2026 17


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