New developments under EU Directive on textile and food waste

On September 26, 2025, EU Directive 2025/1892 of September 10, amending Directive 2008/98/EC on waste, was published in the Official Journal of the European Union ("the Directive"). The new regulation establishes strengthened measures for the textile and food sectors, identified as sectors with intensive resource use that can cause negative environmental externalities.

Developments for the textile sector: extended producer responsibility (EPR) for textile, textile-related and footwear products

Member States must ensure that producers of textile, textile-related and footwear products listed in Annex IVc—selling for the first time in a Member State—are subject to EPR.

Key factors include:

• Producer: means any manufacturer, importer or distributor or other natural or legal person that, irrespective of the selling technique used (including by means of distance contracts), is established in a Member State that (i) manufactures textile, textile-related or footwear products under its own name or trademark, or has them designed or manufactured and supplies them for the first time under its own name or trademark; (ii) resells within that Member State, products manufactured by third parties but under its own name or trademark; (iii) supplies these products for the first time from another Member State or third country; or (iv) sells by means of distance contracts directly to end-users in a Member State when it is established in another Member State or third country. The definition does not include manufacturers, importers, distributors or other natural or legal persons that supply used textile, textile-related or footwear products assessed as fit for re-use, or derived from those used or waste products or their parts on the market. It also excludes self-employed tailors producing customized products.
• Representation: producers that are not established in the Member State where they supply, must assign a representative.

• Costs: producers must cover the costs of (i) collecting used and waste textile products; (ii) transporting, sorting and preparing the products for re-use; (iii) recycling and carrying out other recovery operations; and (iv) disposing of collected used and waste products. Producers must also cover the costs of (i) carrying out compositional surveys of collected mixed municipal waste; (ii) providing information, data gathering and reporting; and (iii) supporting research and development to improve the product's ecodesign requirements. Member States must avoid costs being paid in more than one Member State.
• Mandatory register: Member States will establish a register of textile producers where producers are obliged to register before selling textile products for the first time in each Member State. The producers’ obligations to register can be met by the producer responsibility organization for textile products. The European Commission will create a website with links to all the national registers of producers to facilitate the registration process in all Member States.
• Producer responsibility organizations: Member States will ensure that producers entrust a producer responsibility organization to meet their EPR obligations under Article 22a on their behalf, for which these organizations must obtain an authorization. Member States will require these organizations to ensure that the financial contributions paid to them by producers of textile products are based on the weight and, where appropriate, the quantity of the products concerned, and must be modulated on the basis of the ecodesign requirements. They must also take into account the revenues by the producer responsibility organizations from re-use, from preparing for re-use or from the value of secondary raw materials from recycled waste textiles, as well as ensuring equal treatment of producers.
• Separate collection system: Member States will ensure that the producer responsibility organizations establish a separate collection system for textile products, regardless of their nature, material composition, condition, name, brand, trademark or origin, in the territory of a Member State where they make those products available on the market for the first time. The collection system must cover the whole territory of the Member State, without being limited to areas where the collection and subsequent management of those products is profitable. Local public authorities, social economy entities and other re-use operators can participate in these separate collection systems.
• Textile waste management: Textile products and waste textile separately collected will be considered to be waste on collection. As an exception, products that are directly handed over by end users at the collection point and assessed as fit for immediate re-use will not be considered to be waste on collection.

Under the Directive, Member States will ensure that the EPR schemes are established by April 17, 2028. The Directive also expects that, from April 17, 2029, the EPR scheme will apply to enterprises employing fewer than 10 persons and whose annual turnover and annual balance sheet does not exceed EUR 2 million.

Developments for the food sector: food waste goals and measures

• Food waste reduction targets: The Directive introduces national food waste reduction targets, compared to the annual average between 2021 and 2023, which must be met by December 31, 2030. Specifically: (i) a 10% reduction in food waste in processing and manufacturing by 10%; and (ii) a 30% reduction in food waste per capita, jointly in retail and other distribution of food, in restaurants and food services and in households.
• Minimum measures for preventing generation of food waste: The Directive also orders the adoption of various measures, including awareness raising campaigns; identification of inefficiencies in the food supply chain; promotion of food donation; supporting training, as well as facilitating access to funding for small and medium-sized enterprises; and promoting innovation and technological solutions that prevent food waste.

The deadline to transpose this Directive is June 17, 2027.

For more information, please contact our Knowledge and Innovation Area specialists.