In 2020, the volume of separate collected textiles in the EU-27 was estimated to be between 1.6 and 2.5 million tons (MT). What is currently a self-financing system through revenues generated by the preparation for re-use and the marketing of second-hand textiles^[1] will drastically change in the future. For example, 87% of German collectors have reported an average decline in quality due to the increased presence of impurities or inferior quality of the textiles they receive^[2]. It is therefore much needed to encourage the development of further markets for used textiles but also recycled fibres. One of the policy tools to strengthen the textile re-use and recycling market is an extended producer responsibility scheme (EPR) as introduced by the Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC (WFD). Extended producer responsibility schemes are a set of measures taken by Member States to ensure that producers of textiles would bear the financial responsibility for the management of the waste stage of the textile’s life cycle.

^[1] GftZ: Hintergründe und Strategien zum Aufbau eines Systems für eine „Erweiterte Produzentenverantwortung für Textilien“ (2019)

^[2] Bvse Textilstudie (2020)