Extended producer responsibility for textiles is coming across Europe. The question is not whether it will happen – but whether we use it wisely. At LOOP Forum, that question moves from policy paper to open debate.
Morten Harboe-Jepsen, CEO, Retur
Dansk Mode & Textil) and Kristina Vigen (Chief Sustainability Officer, Sports Group).
Here we explore one of the most consequential design questions facing the textile sector right now: how do we structure producer responsibility so it actually builds a circular market rather than just administering one that isn’t working?
A market under pressure
The textile sector is caught in a paradox.
There is broad political and industry consensus that textiles must enter a circular economy. Yet the market for handling and reselling used textiles is more strained than ever.
Much of what enters the waste stream today is worn, mixed and already degraded at the point of collection, and these conditions rarely improve further down the system.
The result is low material value, fragile economics and a lack of the investment needed to develop better infrastructure. Without stable end-markets for recycled fibres, the circular potential of textiles remains largely unrealised.
Mandatory separate collection of textiles across the EU will significantly increase volumes. But more volume does not automatically mean better quality or better outcomes.
Design choice matter
Experience from other EPR systems – including electronics, packaging and batteries – shows that how producer responsibility is structured makes all the difference.
Implemented defensively, EPR becomes a reporting and cost-allocation mechanism. Designed strategically, it can create the economic and organisational framework needed to build infrastructure, improve material quality and stimulate real demand for recycled fibres.
The electronics sector offers a useful reference point. Producer Responsibility Organisations (PROs) in that space helped establish new treatment infrastructure and develop markets that previously did not exist.
Textile EPR now has the opportunity to learn from those experiences, and to set the bar higher from day one.
Producer responsibility is not a solution in itself. But it is the best structural opportunity we have to genuinely lift textile recycling if we use it deliberately and with ambition.
The question we need to answer together
How EPR for textiles should be designed is not yet settled and the stakes are high.
Among the questions the sector must work through:
- Can EPR be designed to actively develop markets or will it default to cost allocation and compliance?
- What would it take to make recycled textile fibres commercially attractive to manufacturers?
- Is collection quality the critical bottleneck, and who is responsible for improving it?
- Are individual national markets, including Denmark, too small to drive the investment needed alone?
- What can textile EPR learn from electronics and packaging — and what should it avoid repeating?
These are not rhetorical questions. They are the ones that will determine whether textile EPR becomes a structural lever for change or just another layer of administration.
Introducing Tekstilretur
To turn this opportunity into practice, Retur is launching Tekstilretur a new PRO for textile producer responsibility in Denmark.
Tekstilretur is built on the same non-profit, member-driven model as Retur’s other PROs, with over 20 years of experience across electronics, packaging and batteries. Members have direct influence on how the organisation is run, priced and developed.
The PRO is connected to EU-level developments through Euratex, the Nordic collaboration Nordic Pro Solutions and the European network Pronexa. Experience from packaging EPR suggests that data requirements may arrive as early as 2027, making early preparation a strategic advantage for producers.
Join the debate at LOOP Forum
The session starts with the questions the sector needs to work through together – on quality, investment, ambition and what a well-designed PRO can actually deliver.
Come find us at the Retur stand, or join the conversation on the Main Stage, Tuesday the 28th of April from 12:30-13:15 with Lars Trier Mogensen, Camilla Jonassen, Marie Busck and Kristina Vigen.
About Tekstilretur
- New PRO for textile producer responsibility, part of the Retur family
- Non-profit and member-driven, with influence on governance, pricing and development
- Connected to EU, Nordic and European networks for cross-border producer responsibility
