As of 16 October, the revised provisions of the Waste Framework Directive apply. They are intended to help combat textile and food waste. The European Commission announced this in a press release. With regard to the sustainable management of textile waste, the revised directive thus introduces two main packages of measures to address the significant environmental impacts of the textile and clothing sector in the EU.
- All Member States must establish their own Extended Producer
- Responsibility system for textiles and shoes, in which the fees for extended producer responsibility are collected and used to finance the collection, reuse, recycling and disposal of textiles.
- In addition, all separately collected textiles will now be regarded as waste. This ensures a uniform interpretation of the terms "waste" and "used" textiles in the Member States, and the Member States must ensure that separately collected textiles are sorted prior to their possible movement.
The fight
against food waste is also a central objective of the directive. By 2030, Member States must reduce food waste in processing and manufacturing by ten percent and in retail and at the consumer level by 30 percent per capita, which also includes restaurants, catering services and households. To achieve these goals, Member States must assess and adjust their programs to prevent food waste. To monitor progress, the European Commission will conduct a comprehensive review by
2027.
According to the European Commission, the production and consumption of textiles also have significant environmental impacts. In 2019, around 12.6 million tonnes of textile waste were generated, of which only one fifth were collected separately for reuse or recycling. Data reported since 2020 and up to 2023 also show a substantial amount of food waste and so far no clear downward trend. The revised directive offers, from the Commission's perspective, a decisive opportunity to
