Preamble

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 192(1) thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission, After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national parliaments, Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (1), After consulting the Committee of the Regions, Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure (2), Whereas: (1) The prevention and management of all types of waste is a crucial tool in the pursuit of protecting the environment and human health in the Union. As Member States strive to improve continuously their waste prevention and management plans, it is vital to stringently apply the waste hierarchy set out in Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (3) (‘waste hierarchy’). (2) The European Green Deal, set out in the Commission communication of 11 December 2019, and the new Circular Economy Action Plan for a cleaner and more competitive Europe, set out in the Commission communication of 11 March 2020, call for reinforced and accelerated Union and Member States’ action to ensure environmental and social sustainability of the textile and food sectors, as they represent leading resource-intensive sectors that cause significant negative environmental externalities. In those sectors, financing and technological gaps, amongst other things, impede progress towards the transition to a circular economy and decarbonisation. The food and textile sectors are respectively the first- and fourth-most resource-intensive sectors and they do not fully adhere to the fundamental Union waste management principles set out in the waste hierarchy, which requires the prioritisation of waste prevention followed by preparing for re-use, and recycling. Those challenges require systemic solutions based on a lifecycle approach, with a particular focus on food and textile products. (3) According to the Commission communication of 30 March 2022 on the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles (the ‘Strategy’), substantial changes are needed to move away from the currently prevailing linear way in which textile products are designed, produced, used and discarded, with a particular need to limit fast fashion. According to the Strategy’s vision for 2030, consumers benefit longer from high-quality affordable textiles. The Strategy underlines the importance of making producers responsible for the waste that their products create and refers to the establishment at Union level of harmonised extended producer responsibility rules for textiles with eco-modulation of fees. It states that the key objective of those rules is to create an economy for collection, sorting, re-use, preparing for re-use, and recycling of textiles, and to incentivise producers to design their products in a manner that respects circularity principles. To that end, it envisages that a significant share of contributions made by producers to extended producer responsibility schemes will be dedicated to waste prevention measures and preparing for re-use. The Strategy also supports the need for strengthened and more innovative approaches to sustainable management of biological resources to increase circularity and valorisation of food waste and re-use of bio-based textiles. (4) The appropriate collection of textiles will contribute to reducing the presence of waste synthetic textiles in the environment, including in terrestrial and marine ecosystems, by ensuring that textiles are reused, recycled and ultimately given a new life, thereby promoting a circular economy. (5) Taking into account the negative effects of food waste, Member States committed themselves to taking measures to promote the prevention and reduction of food waste in line with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted on 25 September 2015, and in particular UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 12.3 to halve per capita global food waste at retail and consumer levels and to reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses, by 2030. Those measures aim to prevent and reduce food waste in primary production, in processing and manufacturing, in retail and other distribution of food, in restaurants and food services as well as in households. (6) As a follow-up to the Conference on the Future of Europe which ran from April 2021 to May 2022, the Commission committed itself to enabling citizens’ panels to deliberate and make recommendations ahead of certain key proposals. In that context, a European citizens’ panel was convened from December 2022 to February 2023 to prepare a list of recommendations on how to step up actions to reduce food waste in the Union. As households account for over half of food waste generated in the Union, citizens’ insights on food waste prevention are particularly relevant. In its final recommendations, the European Citizens’ Panel on Food Waste presented three principal lines of action, namely strengthening cooperation in the food value chain, encouraging food business initiatives and supporting consumer behavioural change. The panel’s recommendations will continue to support the Commission’s overall work programme related to food waste prevention and could serve as a guide to help Member States in achieving the food waste reduction targets. (7) Directive 2009/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (4) amended Directive 2006/12/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (5) by excluding from its scope carbon dioxide captured and transported for the purposes of geological storage and geologically stored pursuant to the requirements of Directive 2009/31/EC. That amendment, however, was not, incorporated into Directive 2008/98/EC, which repealed Directive 2006/12/EC. Therefore, in order to ensure legal certainty, this amending Directive incorporates that amendment into Directive 2008/98/EC. (8) Definitions of ‘producer of textile, textile-related or footwear products’, ‘making available on the market’, ‘online platform’, ‘fulfilment service provider’, ‘social economy entity’, ‘consumer’, ‘end user’, ‘unsold consumer product’ and ‘producer responsibility organisation’ linked to the implementation of the extended producer responsibility for textiles should be included in Directive 2008/98/EC so that the scope of those concepts and linked obligations are clarified. (9) Despite the growing awareness of the negative impacts and consequences of food waste, the political commitments made at Union and Member State level, and Union measures implemented following the Commission communication of 2 December 2015 entitled ‘Closing the loop – An EU action plan for the Circular Economy’, the generation of food waste is not decreasing to the extent necessary for significant progress to be made towards achieving SDG Target 12.3. In order to ensure significant contribution towards the attainment of SDG Target 12.3, the measures to be taken by Member States should be strengthened so that Member States make progress towards achieving that target when implementing this Directive and other appropriate measures to reduce generation of food waste. This Directive therefore sets out areas of intervention where Member States should adapt or adopt measures, as appropriate, for each stage of the food supply chain. (10) With regard to food waste prevention, Member States have, to a certain extent, developed communication materials and carried out campaigns targeting consumers and food business operators. However, those actions mainly focused on raising awareness rather than fostering behavioural change. In order to reach the full potential for reducing food waste and to ensure progress over time, behavioural change interventions should be developed, tailored to the specific situations and needs in Member States, and fully integrated in national food waste prevention programmes. It is also important to take into account dietary shifts, regional circular solutions, including public-private partnerships and citizen engagement, as well as adaptation to specific regional needs such as in the case of outermost regions or islands. (11) Disparities in bargaining power between suppliers and buyers of agricultural and food products persist in food supply chains across the Union. This is particularly the case in relation to agricultural products, due to their perishable nature to a greater or lesser extent. Member States should therefore take all appropriate action to ensure that measures taken to implement the food waste reduction targets set out in this Directive do not result in a reduction of the bargaining power of suppliers of agricultural products or in an increase of unfair trading practices towards such suppliers, prohibited under Directive (EU) 2019/633 of the European Parliament and of the Council (6). (12) The European Economic and Social Committee and the European Food Security Crisis preparedness and response Mechanism have recognised the contribution of packaging in reducing food waste and ensuring food supply and security. In that context, it is therefore appropriate for Member States to encourage and promote technological solutions that contribute to the prevention of food waste, such as active packaging intended to extend the shelf-life or to maintain or improve the condition of packaged food, especially during transportation and storage, and user-friendly tools that comply with Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council (7), thereby contributing to the prevention of unnecessary discarding of food which is still safe for consumption. (13) Having regard to their potential to reduce food waste, Member States should support innovative and technological solutions that accurately indicate the shelf-life of a food, ensure food safety and, in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, provide information, including the indication of ‘minimum durability’ or ‘use-by’ dates, that is clear and easily understood by consumers. (14) In order to achieve results in the short term, and to give food business operators, consumers and public authorities the necessary perspective for the longer term, quantified targets for the reduction of generation of food waste, to be achieved by Member States by 2030, should be set. (15) Having regard to the Union’s commitment to the ambition set out in SDG Target 12.3, it is expected that the setting of food waste reduction targets to be achieved by Member States by 2030 would provide a strong policy impulse to take action and ensure a significant contribution to global targets. However, given the legally binding nature of such targets, they should be proportionate, attainable and feasible, and take into account the role of different actors in the food supply chain as well as their capacity, in particular micro and small enterprises. The establishment of legally binding targets should thus follow a step-wise approach, starting with a level which is lower than the one set under the SDG, with a view to ensuring a consistent response from Member States and tangible progress towards SDG Target 12.3. (16) Reducing food waste at any stage along the food supply chain yields a significant positive environmental impact. Reducing food waste at the production and consumption stages requires different approaches and measures and involves different stakeholder groups. Therefore, one target for the reduction of the generation of food waste should be set for processing and manufacturing and another target should be set for retail and other distribution of food, for restaurants and food services and for households. (17) In light of the interdependence between the distribution and consumption stages in the food supply chain, in particular the influence of retail practices on consumer behaviour and the relation between food consumption in- and out-of-home, one joint target should be set up for those stages of the food supply chain. Setting separate targets for each of those stages would add unnecessary complexity and would limit Member States’ flexibility in focusing on their specific areas of concern. In order to avoid that a joint target results in excessive burden on certain operators, Member States should take into account the principle of proportionality in setting up measures to reach the joint target. (18) Demographic changes have a significant impact on the amount of food consumed and food waste generated. A joint food waste reduction target, applying to retail and other distribution of food, restaurants and food services and households, should therefore be expressed as a percentage change in food waste levels per capita in order to take into account population changes. As tourists are not counted as part of the general population and Member States might be confronted with an increase or decrease in tourism in relation to the reference period for the setting of the food waste reduction target expressed per capita for retail and other distribution of food, restaurants and food services and households, taking into account tourism flows, the Commission should adopt a correction factor, so as to support Member States achieve that food waste reduction target. (19) 2020 was the first year in which Member States measured food waste levels using the harmonised methodology set out in Commission Delegated Decision (EU) 2019/1597 (8). However, due to protective measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 data are not considered representative of food waste generated in certain Member States. Similarly, this may be the case for the data collected annually for 2021, 2022 and 2023. It is therefore appropriate to use an annual average between 2021 and 2023 as a reference period for setting food waste reduction targets, while alternatively allowing the use of the data from 2020. For Member States which are able to demonstrate that they performed food waste measurements before 2020 using methods consistent with Delegated Decision (EU) 2019/1597, the use of a year earlier than 2020 should be allowed as the reference period. (20) In order to ensure that the step-wise approach towards the achievement of the global target delivers its objectives, the levels set for the legally binding targets on reduction of food waste should be reviewed and revised, if appropriate, to take into account the progress made by Member States over time, as well as any potential impact of changes in production levels in the food processing and manufacturing sector. This would allow for a possible adjustment of the targets with a view to strengthening the Union’s contribution and achieving further alignment with SDG Target 12.3, to be reached by 2030, and providing direction for further progress beyond that date. In order to further support primary producers in their efforts to reduce food waste and losses, it is necessary to address knowledge gaps with a view to identifying appropriate levers to reduce them. (21) In order to ensure better, more timely and more uniform implementation of the provisions related to food waste prevention, to anticipate any implementation weaknesses, and to allow Member States to take action in advance of the deadlines for meeting the targets, the system of early warning reports, introduced in 2018, should be extended to cover food waste reduction targets. (22) In line with the polluter-pays principle, as referred to in Article 191(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), it is essential that the producers making available on the market for the first time within the territory of a Member State certain textile, textile-related or footwear products take responsibility for their management at their end of life as well as extending their lifetime through making used textile, textile-related and footwear products assessed as fit for re-use available on the market for re-use. To implement the polluter-pays principle, it is appropriate to lay down obligations concerning the management of textile, textile-related or footwear products for producers, including any manufacturer, importer or distributor, that, irrespective of the selling technique used, including by means of distance contracts as defined in Article 2, point (7), of Directive 2011/83/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (9), make available those products on the market within a territory of a Member State for the first time on a professional basis under its own name or trademark. The scope of the producers covered by the extended producer responsibility should exclude self-employed tailors producing customised products in view of their reduced role in the textile market and those producers making available for the first time on the market used textile, textile-related or footwear products assessed as fit for re-use, or textile, textile-related or footwear products derived from such used or waste products or their parts with a view to supporting re-use and a prolonged lifetime thereof, including through repair, refurbishment, upgrading, remanufacturing and upcycling, whereby certain functionalities of the original product are changed, within the Union. (23) In the context of this amending Directive, ‘used textiles’ should be understood as separately collected textiles that are discarded by the end user, whether or not they are discarded with the intention and possibility for them to be re-used. At that stage, used textiles could be either fit for re-use or waste, as they have not been assessed. For that reason, used textiles that are separately collected should be considered to be waste upon collection unless they are directly handed over by end users and directly and professionally assessed as fit for re-use at the collection point by the re-use operator or social economy entities. ‘Used textiles assessed as fit for re-use’ should be understood as textiles that have been assessed as fit for re-use after collection, sorting, preparing for re-use or after the direct professional assessment at the collection point. Used textiles assessed as fit for re-use should not be considered to be waste textile. (24) According to the Commission communication of 9 December 2021 entitled ‘Building an economy that works for people: an action plan for the social economy’, the social economy encompasses a range of entities with different business and organisational models. They operate in a large variety of economic sectors. The three main principles of the social economy include: (i) the primacy of people as well as social or environmental purpose over profit; (ii) the reinvestment of all or most of the profits and surpluses to further pursue their social or environmental purposes and carry out activities in the interest of their members/users or society at large; and (iii) democratic or participatory governance. In that respect, social economy entities can take the form of cooperatives, mutual societies, associations, including charities, foundations and can include religious and church organisations. Social economy entities also include private law entities that are social enterprises as defined in Regulation (EU) 2021/1057 of the European Parliament and of the Council (10). (25) There are wide disparities as regards the way in which the separate collection of textiles is set up or planned to be set up, whether through extended producer responsibility schemes or other approaches. Where extended producer responsibility schemes are considered, there are also wide disparities, such as with regard to the products falling within their scope, the responsibility of producers, and governance models. The rules on extended producer responsibility laid down in Directive 2008/98/EC should therefore apply to extended producer responsibility schemes for producers of textile, textile-related or footwear products. However, those rules should be complemented by further specific provisions relevant for the textile sector characteristics, in particular, the high share of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) among producers, the role of social economy entities and the importance of re-use in increasing the sustainability of the textile value chain. Those rules should also be more detailed and harmonised to avoid creating a fragmented market that could have a negative impact on the sector, particularly on micro enterprises and SMEs, for the collection or treatment, including recycling, of textiles, as well as to provide clear incentives for sustainable textile product design and policies and facilitate the markets of secondary raw materials. In that context, Member States are encouraged to consider authorising multiple producer responsibility organisations, as competition among such producer responsibility organisations can lead to greater consumer benefits, increase innovation, lower costs, improve separate collection of textiles, and increase choices for producers seeking to contract with such organisations. (26) According to the European Environment Agency, currently less than 1 % of all clothing waste is used to make new clothing in a circular way. In addition, most textiles are not designed in a manner that respects circularity principles and 78 % of all textile products require disassembling before textile-to-textile recycling. In order to support and drive technological and infrastructural development as well as the push for eco-design of textiles, investments into circular textiles should be promoted for the prevention, collection, sorting, re-use and local reuse, as well as recycling and fibre-to-fibre recycling of textiles. The total amount of waste textiles generated, including clothing and footwear, home textiles, technical textiles, and post-industrial and pre-consumer waste, is estimated to be 12,6 million tonnes. This includes fractions that are discarded during textile production, at the retail stage and by households and commercial entities as waste. (27) Member States should require producer responsibility organisations to ensure the confidentiality of the data in their possession as regards proprietary information or information directly attributable to individual producers or their authorised representatives. In accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council (11), that confidentiality is to be maintained throughout data processing, storage and reporting processes, with robust security measures and data protection standards in place to prevent unauthorised access or potential data breaches. (28) Household textile and apparel and clothing accessories comprise the largest share of Union textile consumption and the biggest contributor to unsustainable patterns of over production and overconsumption. Household textiles and apparel are also the focus of all existing separate collection systems in Member States along with other post-consumer apparel, accessories and footwear that are not primarily composed of textiles. The scope of the established extended producer responsibility scheme should therefore cover textile, textile-related and footwear products for household use or other uses, where such products listed in Annex IVc are similar in nature and composition to those for household use. Other uses where textile, textile-related and footwear products listed in Annex IVc are similar in nature and composition to those for household use should include professional uses unless the obligations of establishing dedicated separate collection schemes and subsequent waste treatment operations for such products for professional uses are already provided for in this amending Directive, under provisions other than those included in Articles relating to extended producer responsibility for textiles and management of waste textiles, or in other relevant Union and national laws. Products for professional use, including military use, that can pose safety, health and hygiene risks or raise security concerns should be excluded from extended producer responsibility schemes established for textile, textile-related and footwear products listed in Annex IVc. In order to ensure the legal certainty for the producers on the products subject to the extended producer responsibility, the products in scope should be identified by reference to the Combined Nomenclature (CN) codes pursuant to Annex I to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 (12). (29) According to the Political Guidelines for the next European Commission 2024 – 2029, the Commission will work on a new Circular Economy Act with the purpose of helping to create market demand for secondary materials and a single market for waste, notably in relation to critical raw material. In that context, Union legislation on waste is expected to be updated and the Commission will assess the need to amend Articles 8, 8a and 10 of Directive 2008/98/EC with a view to introducing extended producer responsibility for additional waste streams, such as mattresses and carpets, and to further harmonising recovery operations and extended producer responsibility requirements, including for producer registers. (30) The textile sector is resource-intensive. With regard to the production of raw materials and textiles, most of the pressures and impacts related to the consumption of clothing, footwear and household textiles in the Union occur in third countries. In particular, 73 % of clothes and household textiles consumed in Europe are imported. However, such pressures and impacts also affect the Union due to their global impact on climate and the environment. The prevention, preparing for re-use, and recycling of waste textiles are therefore able to help reduce the global environmental footprint of the sector, including in the Union. In addition, the current resource-inefficient waste management of waste textiles is not in line with the waste hierarchy and leads to environmental harm both in the Union and in third countries, including through greenhouse gas emissions from incineration and landfilling. (31) The purpose of extended producer responsibility for textile, textile-related and footwear products is to ensure a high level of environmental and health protection in the Union, create an economy for collection, sorting, re-use, preparing for re-use, and recycling, in particular, fibre-to-fibre recycling, as well as provide incentives for producers to ensure that their products are designed in a manner that respects circularity principles. In order to ensure that the extended producer responsibility obligations do not apply retroactively and comply with the principle of legal certainty, producers of textile, textile-related or footwear products should finance the costs of collecting, sorting for re-use, preparing for re-use and recycling, and of the recycling and other treatment of collected used and waste textile, textile-related and footwear products, including unsold consumer products considered to be waste that were supplied on the territory of the Member States from the date of entry into force of this amending Directive. Those producers should also finance the costs of: carrying out compositional surveys of collected mixed municipal waste; providing information to end users on the impact and sustainable management of textiles; reporting on separate collection, re-use and other treatment; sorting and recycling technologies; and of supporting research and development for the eco-design of textiles that do not contain substances of concern. (32) As the financial contributions to be paid by a producer should cover the costs for the waste management of products that that producer makes available on the Union market, Member States should ensure that payments of such contributions in more than one Member State are avoided where products circulate in the Union. A producer should therefore pay the extended producer responsibility contributions for the products it made available on the market of a Member State where such products are likely to become waste, except for those products that have left the territory of that Member State before being sold to end-users or becoming waste. (33) Pursuant to Article 193 TFEU, protective measures adopted pursuant to Article 192 TFEU do not prevent any Member State from maintaining or introducing more stringent protective measures, under the conditions established by Treaties and the case law. For example, a Member State would be able to maintain an extended producer responsibility scheme for waste textiles on microenterprises which is already in force at the time of entry into force of this amending Directive. (34) Producers should be responsible for setting up collection systems for the collection of all used and waste textile, textile-related and footwear products and for ensuring that they are subsequently subject to sorting for re-use, preparing for re-use, and recycling to maximise the availability of second-hand clothing and footwear and to reduce the volumes of textiles for types of waste treatment that are lower in the waste hierarchy. Ensuring that textile products can be and are used and re-used for longer is the most effective way to significantly reduce their impact on the climate and the environment. This should also enable sustainable and circular business models such as re-use, renting and repair, take-back services and second-hand retail to create new green quality jobs and cost-saving opportunities for citizens. Making producers responsible for the waste that their products create is essential to decouple waste textile generation from growth in the sector. Producers should also be responsible for recycling, in particular prioritising the scaling up of fibre-to-fibre recycling, and other recovery operations and disposal. (35) Producers and producer responsibility organisations should finance the scaling up of textile recycling, in particular fibre-to-fibre recycling, thereby enabling the recycling of a broader variety of materials and creating a source of raw materials for textile production in the Union. It is also important that producers financially support research and innovation into technological developments in automatic sorting and composition sorting solutions that allow the separation and recycling of mixed materials and the decontamination of the waste to enable high-quality fibre-to-fibre recycling solutions and the uptake of recycled fibre content. To facilitate compliance with this amending Directive, Member States are to ensure that information and assistance are available to economic operators from the textile sector, especially to SMEs, which should take the form of guidance, financial support, access to finance, specialised management and staff training material, or organisational and technical assistance. If such information and assistance are financed through state resources, including when wholly financed by contributions imposed by a public authority and levied on the undertakings concerned, they may constitute State aid within the meaning of Article 107(1) TFEU. In such cases, Member States are to ensure compliance with State aid rules. The mobilisation of private and public investment in the circularity and decarbonisation of the textile sector are also the focus of several Union funding programmes and roadmaps, such as the Hubs for Circularity instrument and specific calls under Horizon Europe. It is also necessary to further assess the feasibility of setting Union targets for the recycling of textiles to support and drive technological development and the investments into recycling infrastructure as well as the push for ecodesign for recycling. (36) Used and waste textile, textile-related and footwear products should be collected separately from other waste streams, such as metals, paper and cardboard, glass, plastics, wood and bio-waste, to maintain their reusability and potential for high-quality recycling. In light of the environmental impact and the loss of materials due to used and waste textiles not being separately collected, and consequently not treated in an environmentally sound manner, the collection network of used and waste textile, textile-related and footwear products should cover the whole territory of Member States including the outermost regions, be close to the end user and not target only areas and products where the collection is profitable. The collection network should be organised in cooperation with other actors active in the waste management and re-use sectors, such as municipalities and social economy entities. In view of the significant environmental and climate benefits associated with re-use, the primary and secondary purposes of the collection network should be to collect re-usable and recyclable textile, textile-related and footwear products accordingly. A sustained increase in separate collection would drive improved re-use performance and quality recycling in the textile supply chains, boost the uptake of quality secondary raw materials and support investment planning for textile sorting and processing infrastructure. In order to verify and improve the effectiveness of the collection network and the information campaigns, regular compositional surveys at least at NUTS 2 level should be carried out on mixed municipal waste that has been collected to determine the amount of waste textile, textile-related and footwear products therein. In addition, information on the performance of separate collection systems and the quantity by weight of the separate collection showing a sustained increase should be made publicly available on a yearly basis by the producer responsibility organisations. (37) In view of the key role of social economy entities in the existing textile collection systems and their potential to create local, sustainable, participatory and inclusive business models and quality jobs in the Union, in line with the objectives of the Commission communication of 9 December 2021 entitled ‘Building an economy that works for people: an action plan for the social economy’, the introduction of extended producer responsibility schemes should maintain and support the activities of social economy entities involved in used textiles management. Those entities therefore should be regarded as partners in the separate collection systems supporting the scale-up of re-use and repair and creating quality jobs for all and in particular for vulnerable groups. Sorting requirements should also apply to the used and waste textile, textile-related and footwear products collected by the social economy entities. In that regard, social economy entities should also provide information to the competent authority on their collection of textiles and subsequent management of such collected textiles by way of minimum reporting obligations. Member States should be able to exempt, totally or partially, social economy entities from such reporting obligations where their fulfilment would result in a disproportionate administrative burden on such entities. (38) Producers and producer responsibility organisations should be actively involved in providing information to end users, in particular to consumers, that used and waste textile, textile-related and footwear products should be collected separately, that collection systems are available and that end users have an important role in ensuring waste prevention and an environmentally optimal management of waste textile. This should include information on the availability of re-use arrangements for textiles and footwear and the environmental benefits of sustainable consumption and the environmental, health and social impacts of the textile apparel industry. The end users should also be informed about the importance of making informed, responsible and sustainable textile consumption choices and of ensuring an environmentally optimal management of waste textile, textile-related and footwear products. Those information requirements apply in addition to the requirements on the provision of information to end users in relation to the textile products laid down in Regulations (EU) No 1007/2011 (13) and (EU) 2024/1781 (14) of the European Parliament and of the Council. The disclosure of information to all end users should make use of modern information technologies. The information should be provided both by conventional means, such as posters both indoors and outdoors, and social media campaigns, and by more innovative means, such as electronic access to websites provided by QR codes. (39) In order to increase the circularity and environmental sustainability of textiles and to reduce the adverse impacts on climate and the environment, Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 provides for the development of binding ecodesign requirements for textile and footwear products, which will, depending on what the impact assessment will show to be beneficial for increasing textile environmental sustainability, regulate durability, reusability, reparability, and fibre-to-fibre recyclability of textiles, and mandatory recycled fibre content in textiles. Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 also regulates the presence of substances of concern to allow their minimisation and tracking with a view to reducing waste generation and improving recycling, as well as the prevention and reduction of synthetic fibres shed into the environment to significantly reduce microplastic release. Furthermore, the modulation of extended producer responsibility fees is an effective economic instrument to incentivise more sustainable textile design, which in turn will lead to improved design that is in line with circularity principles. In order to provide a strong incentive for ecodesign, while taking into account the objectives of the internal market and the composition of the textile sector which is primarily composed of SMEs, it is necessary to harmonise criteria for the modulation of extended producer responsibility fees on the basis of the most relevant ecodesign parameters to enable the treatment of textiles in line with the waste hierarchy. The modulation of those fees according to the ecodesign criteria should be based on the ecodesign requirements and their measurement methodologies that are adopted pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 for textile and footwear products or, only where adopted, pursuant to other Union law establishing harmonised sustainability criteria and measurement methods for textile and footwear products. It is appropriate to empower the Commission to adopt harmonised rules for the fee modulation to ensure the alignment of the fee modulation criteria with those product requirements. (40) Industrial and commercial practices, such as ultra-fast and fast fashion, influence the length of use of the product and the likelihood of a product becoming waste because of aspects not necessarily linked to its design, and are often based on market segmentation. Such practices could lead to the premature discarding of the product before it reaches the end of its potential lifetime, resulting in the overconsumption of textile products and, consequently, to the overgeneration of waste textile. To better identify those practices and allow for eco-modulation of extended producer responsibility fees, Member States could consider criteria such as the width of the product range, understood as the number of product references offered for sale by a producer, with defined thresholds per market segment, or the frequency of offers, understood as the number of product references per market segment offered for sale by a producer in a given period, or repair incentives, understood as the likelihood of the product to be repaired on the basis of its repair-cost ratio or the provision of a repair service by the producer. (41) Member States should take into account criteria such as the volume of textiles, textile-related and footwear products which are made available on the market when determining the extended producer responsibility financial contribution requested from microenterprises in order to ensure a proportionate approach and should minimise reporting obligations. (42) In order to monitor that producers meet their financial and organisational obligations in relation to the management of used and waste textile, textile-related and footwear products that they make available on the market for the first time within the territory of a Member State, a register of producers should be established and managed by each Member State and producers should be obliged to register. In order to facilitate that registration, the registration requirements and format should be harmonised across the Union to the greatest extent possible, especially where producers make textile, textile-related or footwear products available on the market for the first time in different Member States. The information in the register should be accessible to those entities that play a role in the verification of the compliance with the extended producer responsibility obligations and their enforcement. (43) Since SMEs constitute 99 % of the textile sector, the implementation of an extended producer responsibility scheme for textile, textile-related and footwear products should aim to reduce administrative burdens as much as possible. The fulfilment of the extended producer responsibilities should therefore be exercised collectively by means of producer responsibility organisations, including any state-run producer responsibility organisations established by the Member State concerned, taking up the responsibility on their behalf. Producer responsibility organisations should be subject to authorisation by Member States and document, inter alia, that they have the necessary financial means to cover the costs of the extended producer responsibility obligations. In the case of state-run producer responsibility organisations, as there is no represented producer’s mandate, the requirements provided for in this Directive concerning such mandate should not apply. (44) Pursuant to Article 30 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council (15), providers of online platforms that allow consumers to conclude distance contracts with traders, are required, prior to allowing a producer to use their services, to obtain certain identification information from the trader and a self-certification by the trader committing to only offer products or services that comply with the applicable rules of Union law. For the purposes of this Directive, producers offering textile, textile-related or footwear products made available on the market for the first time to consumers located in the Union should be considered to be traders within the meaning of Article 30 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065. (45) In order to ensure the effective enforcement of the extended producer responsibility obligations, registration in the textile producer register set up pursuant to this Directive, should be considered to be appropriate information for the purposes of Article 30(1), point (d), of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065. Furthermore, the self-certification referred to in Article 30(1), point (e), of that Regulation should cover the commitment by the producer to offer only textile, textile-related or footwear products to which the extended producer responsibility requirements laid down by this Directive apply. Compliance with the requirements laid down in Article 30(1), points (d) and (e), of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 should not be considered to amount to a general obligation to monitor the information which providers of online platforms, allowing consumers to conclude distance contracts with producers, transmit or store, or to actively seek facts or circumstances indicating illegal activity. The rules on enforcement laid down in Chapter IV of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 apply to providers of such platforms in relation to those requirements. (46) Undesirable situations of free-riding could also occur in relation to fulfilment service providers. This Directive introduces provisions with the aim of preventing such undesirable situations, with an approach similar to that of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, as regards providers of online platforms. (47) The rapidly growing e-commerce market brings many opportunities, but also represents a significant challenge, especially in terms of environmental protection. While Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 prohibits the imposition of general monitoring obligations on providers of intermediary services, it sets out clear responsibilities and due diligence obligations on providers of online platforms to combat illegal content available on their services. In particular, pursuant to Section 4 of Chapter III of that Regulation, providers of online platforms that allow consumers to conclude distance contracts with traders can be held liable if they do not comply with their specific obligations as intermediaries in the online sale of goods. The supervision and monitoring of compliance with the obligations set out in that Regulation will support the enforcement of and compliance with Directive 2008/98/EC, in particular by ensuring that the information that those online platforms receive from traders is accurate, complete, up-to-date and available in their online interface. The Commission and competent national authorities should exercise their respective monitoring powers in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 and Directive 2008/98/EC, as applicable, and, when required, should act in close cooperation, to ensure compliance by providers of online platforms. (48) In order to ensure that the treatment of textiles is in line with the waste hierarchy, producer responsibility organisations should ensure that all separately collected textiles and footwear are subject to sorting operations that generate items that are fit for re-use and meet the needs of markets for second-hand textile and for feedstock recycling in the Union and globally. In view of the greater environmental benefits associated with extending the lifetime of textiles, re-use should be the main objective of the sorting operations followed by sorting for recycling where the items are professionally assessed as not being re-useable. Those sorting requirements should be developed by the Commission as a priority as part of the harmonised Union end-of-waste criteria for used textile products assessed as fit for re-use and recycled textiles, including on initial sorting that can take place at the collection point. Such harmonised criteria should bring about consistency and high quality in the collected fractions as well as in material flows for sorting, waste recovery operations and secondary raw materials across borders which in turn should facilitate the scaling up re-use and recycling value chains. Used textile, textile-related and footwear products that are directly handed over by end users and directly professionally assessed as fit for re-use at the collection point by the re-use operators or social economy entities should not be considered to be waste. As the end user is not trained to distinguish between re-usable and recyclable items, a professional assessment is needed. A professional assessment means that the final decision to classify used textile, textile-related and footwear products as fit for re-use is not left to the end user but to the persons receiving the used products at the collection point who are provided with trainings or guidelines to ensure an adequate assessment. Where re-use, preparing for re-use, or recycling is not technically possible, the waste hierarchy should still be applied, avoiding landfilling where possible, in particular of biodegradable textiles that are a source of methane emissions, and applying energy recovery where incineration is applied. (49) The Commission will develop and propose an implementing act for setting end-of-waste criteria for textiles, based on the ongoing work of the Joint Research Centre. The end-of-waste criteria should include criteria for textile, textile-related and footwear products assessed as fit for re-use and recycled textile, textile-related and footwear products. (50) Exports of used textile products assessed as fit for re-use and waste textiles to destinations outside the Union have been steadily increasing, with exports representing the greatest share of the re-use market for post-consumer textiles generated in the Union. In view of the expected significant increase in collected waste textiles after the introduction of separate collection by 2025, it is important for the purpose of ensuring high environmental protection to strengthen the efforts to combat illegal shipments of waste to third countries disguised as non-waste. Building on Regulation (EU) 2024/1157 of the European Parliament and of the Council (16) and with a view to ensuring the sustainable management of post-consumer textiles and tackling illegal shipments of waste, it should be provided that all separately collected used textile, textile-related and footwear products undergo a sorting operation prior to their shipment. Furthermore, it should be provided that all separately collected used textile, textile-related and footwear products be regarded as waste and subject to Union waste legislation, including Union legislation on the shipment of waste, until they have undergone a sorting operation by an operator trained in sorting for re-use and recycling who can classify them as fit for re-use. The sorting should be carried out in accordance with the harmonised sorting requirements that deliver high-quality re-usable fraction that meet the needs of the recipient second-hand textile markets in the Union and globally and by establishing criteria to distinguish between used goods assessed as fit for re-use and waste. Shipments of used textile, textile-related and footwear products assessed as fit for re-use should be accompanied by information demonstrating that those items are the output of a sorting or a preparing for re-use operation, as well as information about the company responsible for this operation with a view to increasing transparency and accountability of the process, and that the items are suitable for re-use. Producer responsibility organisations as well as social economy entities should report on the export of waste textile, textile-related and footwear products and on the export of used textile, textile-related and footwear products assessed as fit for re-use, allowing Member States to monitor such exports with a view to better understanding the textile value chain. (51) In order for Member States to achieve the targets provided for in this Directive, Member States should evaluate and adapt their food waste prevention programmes to include new measures, where appropriate, involving multiple partners from the public and private sectors including producers, distributors, suppliers, retailers and food service providers, as well as social economy actors and environmental and consumer organisations, with coordinated actions tailored to address specific hotspots as well as attitudes and behaviours that lead to food waste. In the preparation of these programmes, Member States could draw inspiration from the recommendations produced by the Citizens’ Panel on Food Waste, the European Consumer Food Waste Forum’s compendium of tools, best practices and recommendations to reduce consumer food waste and the exchanges in the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste. (52) Clear accountability and governance of food waste prevention measures are essential to ensure effective coordination of action to drive change and reach the targets set out in this Directive. Due to the shared agenda amongst many Member State authorities and the variety of stakeholders engaged in the fight against food waste in Member States, there is a need for a designated competent authority to be in charge of overall coordination of actions at national level. (53) The granularity of the information on post-consumer municipal textiles management at Union level should be improved to monitor more effectively the re-use of products, including the re-use and preparing for re-use of textiles, including with a view to potentially setting performance targets in the future. Re-use and preparing for re-use data represent key data flows for the monitoring of the decoupling of waste generation from economic growth and the transition towards a sustainable, inclusive and circular economy. Those data flows should therefore be managed by the European Environmental Agency. (54) It is crucial that the Commission and Member States continue to develop, support and expand information and education campaigns regarding waste prevention and management. Whilst general awareness across all sectors regarding the importance of waste prevention and proper waste management is improving, additional progress is still necessary. (55) Delegated Decision (EU) 2019/1597 establishes a common methodology and minimum quality requirements for the uniform measurement of levels of food waste, in accordance with Article 9(8) of Directive 2008/98/EC. With a view to improving the quality, reliability and comparability of data reported by Member States on the levels of food waste, including by further enhancing the consistency of measurement methods used by the Member States, the power to adopt delegated acts set out in that provision should continue to be delegated to the Commission. For the purposes of clarity, that empowerment should be laid down, with minor adaptations, in a new Article that deals specifically with prevention of generation of food waste. (56) In order to bring the CN codes listed in Directive 2008/98/EC in line with the CN codes listed in Annex I to Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 TFEU should be delegated to the Commission in respect of amendments to Annex IVc to Directive 2008/98/EC. It is of particular importance that the Commission carry out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level, and that those consultations be conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making (17). In particular, to ensure equal participation in the preparation of delegated acts, the European Parliament and the Council receive all documents at the same time as Member States’ experts, and their experts systematically have access to meetings of Commission expert groups dealing with the preparation of delegated acts. (57) In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of Directive 2008/98/EC, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission concerning a harmonised format for registration in the register of producers of textile, textile-related or footwear products and fee modulation criteria for extended producer responsibility for textiles and a correction factor to account for the increase or decrease in tourism in relation to the reference period regarding the food waste reduction target set out in this Directive for the retail and other distribution of food, for restaurants and food services and for households. Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council (18). (58) Directive 2008/98/EC should therefore be amended accordingly. (59) It is important that Member States’ implementation of Council Directive 1999/31/EC (19) is substantially and rapidly improved to avoid environmental harm in the Union, including cross-border issues, caused by illegal landfilling of waste. As such, it is appropriate for the Commission to evaluate Directive 1999/31/EC in order to assess ways to strengthen its implementation and present, where appropriate, a legislative proposal to amend it. Furthermore, building on the outcome of the possible update of Union legislation on waste resulting from the upcoming Circular Economy Act, as mentioned in the Commission communication of 26 February 2025 entitled ‘The Clean Industrial Deal: A joint roadmap for competitiveness and decarbonisation’, the Commission should evaluate Directive 2008/98/EC and present, where appropriate, a legislative proposal. In the context of that evaluation, and given the present lack of robust data on waste textile, textile-related and footwear products and on the financing of the related extended producer responsibility schemes to be set up by Member States, the Commission should assess first the possibility of setting waste prevention, collection, preparing for re-use, and recycling targets, and second whether national extended producer responsibility schemes for textile, textile-related and footwear products are effectively financed, including if commercial re-use operators could financially contribute to the financing of extended producer responsibility schemes. In addition, the Commission should also assess the possibility for Member States to introduce prior sorting of mixed municipal waste in order to prevent waste which could be recovered for preparing for re-use, or recycling, from being sent to waste incineration or disposed in landfills. (60) Since the objectives of this Directive, namely to improve the environmental sustainability of the management of food waste and of used and waste textiles, and to ensure the free movement of used and waste textiles in the internal market, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States but can rather, by reason of its scale and effects, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives, HAVE ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:

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Source: EUR-Lex CELLAR · retrieved 2026-09-08 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.