Extended Producer Responsibility

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a type of legislative policy that holds the producer of a product responsible for the costs involved with its end-of-life management (e.g. collection, recycling, safe disposal). When well designed, EPR policies can incentivize better product design for less waste and environmental burden. EPR has already been established in California to improve the safe handling and disposal of products such as pharmaceutical waste, mattresses, and carpets. EPR for textiles could help address textile waste and pollution and incentivize better material and design choices. However, textile is a complex category including widely diverse materials, making efficient collection and recycling challenging.

France is currently the only country with an EPR program for textiles, although there are new programs in development in the European Union. In 2023, California’s legislature is considering a bill on textile EPR (SB 707). This bill has the potential to set a global precedent, and we’ll keep our community informed as discussions about the bill move forward.

To learn more about EPR for textiles and its potential to help alleviate the global burden of textile waste and pollution, read the EPR position paper released by our colleagues at the OR Foundation in Ghana.