Dive Brief:
- The European Commission has prioritized textiles, especially clothing, in its five-year working plan for implementing legislation outlined in the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, or ESPR, which will begin this year, according to a press release.
- According to the plan, the commission will now, over the next five years, begin laying down specific requirements for product labeling and design. Those requirements will include minimum standards for a product’s durability and recycled content, as well as mandatory digital product passports, per the press release.
- For clothing, these requirements need to be adopted in 2027, and apply to all products placed on the European market, regardless of their country of origin, or the size of the company producing them.
Dive Insight:
ESPR was formally adopted by the European Commission last year, and the regulation is intended to help the European Union meet its environmental, circularity, and climate goals. The measure also harmonizes sustainability requirements and will “level the playing field” across the EU’s 27 member countries, which include 450 million consumers, per the working plan’s details.
Textiles, especially clothing, emerged as a top priority in the plan. The European market size for the sector, excluding footwear, is estimated at 78 billion euros, or about $88 billion. Although footwear is not included in the working plan currently outlined, a study will be commissioned to evaluate improving footwear’s sustainability, to be completed by 2027.
The current plan is intended to “build up experience and capacity of ESPR to reach its full regulatory potential,” eventually expanding to other products, per plan documents.
“By setting clear priorities, we are providing legal certainty and predictability for the concerned industries, fostering innovation, and driving investment to support the transition to a circular economy,” Jessika Roswall, Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy, said in the press release.
