Waste Framework Directive: textiles and food waste
PURPOSE: 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.
LEGISLATIVE ACT: Directive (EU) 2025/1892 of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2008/98/EC on waste.
CONTENT: the targeted revision of the Waste Framework Directive sets EU targets for reducing food waste by 2030 and outlines measures to make the textile sector more sustainable and produce less waste.
Prevention of food waste production
Member States will take appropriate measures to prevent food waste from being generated throughout the food supply chain, including primary production, processing and manufacturing, retail and other forms of food distribution, restaurants and catering services, and households.
The new legislation introduces binding targets for reducing food waste, which must be achieved at national level by 31 December 2030:
(a) 10% reduction in the amount of food waste generated in processing and manufacturing;
(b) 30% reduction per capita in the amount of food waste generated jointly in retail and other forms of food distribution, in restaurants and catering services and in households.
These targets will be calculated in relation to the quantity generated on an annual average between 2021 and 2023. Member States will have the option of using an earlier reference year (before 2021).
Member States will:
- develop and support behavioural change interventions to reduce food waste and information campaigns to raise awareness of food waste prevention;
- identify and address inefficiencies in the functioning of the food supply chain;
- encourage and promote innovation and technological solutions that contribute to the prevention of food waste;
- take measures to ensure that economic operators playing an important role in the prevention of food waste offer donation agreements to food banks and other food redistribution organisations, so as to facilitate the donation of unsold food that is safe for human consumption, and at a reasonable cost for economic operators.
By 31 December 2027, the Commission will review the targets to be achieved by 2030 with a view, if appropriate, to amending them and/or extending them to other stages of the food supply chain, and to considering setting new targets for the period beyond 2030.
Textile waste
Member States will ensure that producers have extended producer responsibility (EPR) for textile, textile-related or footwear products that they make available on the market for the first time. This includes clothing and accessories, hats, blankets, bed and kitchen linen, and curtains. Member States will also be able to introduce extended producer responsibility schemes for mattresses.
Producers supplying textiles in the EU will have to bear the costs of their collection, sorting and recycling, through the new EPR schemes to be set up by each Member State by 17 April 2028. These provisions will apply to all producers. To reduce the administrative burden, micro-enterprises will have one additional year to comply with these obligations after the extended producer responsibility schemes are established.
Member States will also need to address fast-fashion and disposable fashion practices when deciding on financial contributions to extended producer responsibility schemes.
To combat illegal shipments of waste, the directive requires that all used textile products, textile accessories, footwear, and waste from these products collected separately be sorted before shipment. Used textiles deemed suitable for reuse should not be considered textile waste.
Review
By 31 December 2029, the Commission will evaluate this Directive and the Landfill Directive. The evaluation will address (i) the effectiveness of the financial and organisational responsibility of the extended producer responsibility schemes, including assessing the possibility of requiring a financial contribution from commercial re-use operators, in particular larger ones; (ii) the possibility of setting targets for the prevention, collection, preparation for reuse and recycling of textile waste, and (iii) the possibility of introducing prior sorting of mixed municipal waste.
ENTRY INTO FORCE: 16.10.2025.
TRANSPOSITION: no later than 17.6.2027.