The Future of Fashion Waste: How EPR is Reshaping the Fashion Industry

Extended Producer Responsibility is a policy approach that places the financial and operational responsibility for managing post-consumer products on the producers who created them in the first place.

It shifts the burden of waste management from local governments and taxpayers to the companies that profit from creating the products.

The concept isn’t new. EPR has been successfully implemented for packaging, electronics, batteries and tires in various regions for decades.

What is new is its application to textiles and fashion, an industry with notoriously complex waste challenges.

At its core, EPR for fashion means brands must take responsibility for their products throughout their entire lifecycle, including what happens after consumers are finished with them.

This often involves:

• Financial contributions to fund collection and recycling systems
• Meeting mandatory recycling or recovery targets
• Reporting on product materials and chemical content
• Designing products for easier recycling, repair and reuse
• Establishing take-back programs to collect used products

EPR systems are gaining traction rapidly in the fashion world. France was the pioneer, establishing the world’s first mandatory EPR framework for textiles in 2007.

More recently, the European Union has positioned EPR as a cornerstone of its Textile Strategy, while several U.S. states including California (SB 707) and New York (S6654) have introduced ambitious EPR legislation.

Fashion’s current linear business model—design, produce, sell, forget—has created a waste crisis of growing proportions. Unfortunately, the numbers tell a sobering story.

In the U.S., the average consumer throws away more than 81 pounds of clothing each year, when you consider that the country as a whole produces more than 11 million tons of textile waste annually.

Other data shows that approximately 40% of clothing donations sent overseas end up as waste within days, often in countries ill-equipped to manage the volume.

This wasteful system persists because, until now, brands haven’t had to account for the true cost of their products’ disposal or end-of-life stage. EPR changes this fundamental equation by creating financial incentives that align with environmental goals.

By making producers financially responsible for end-of-life management, EPR systems encourage companies to:

• Design longer-lasting products that don’t quickly become waste
• Use materials that are easier to recycle
• Create products with fewer harmful chemicals
• Invest in recycling technology and infrastructure
• Develop new business models that extend product lifespans

As climate change, resource scarcity and pollution concerns intensify, both consumers and regulators are recognizing that voluntary sustainability initiatives aren’t creating change quickly enough.

EPR represents a shift toward regulatory frameworks that require meaningful action rather than just aspirational commitments.

Circular fashion envisions a system where clothing, footwear, jewelry and accessories are designed to be used more, made to be made again and produced in ways that regenerate natural systems.

At its core, EPR acts as a powerful catalyst for this circular transformation.

Through mechanisms like eco-modulated fees—where producers pay less for products designed for circularity and more for hard-to-recycle items—EPR creates financial incentives for better design.

A well-designed EPR system rewards durability, reparability, recyclability and the use of recycled content.

Beyond incentives, EPR programs generate funding for the physical infrastructure needed to close the loop. Collection bins, sorting facilities and recycling technologies all require significant investment.

By pooling resources from all producers in the market, EPR can fund these essential systems at scale.

But circularity isn’t just an environmental imperative; it’s a justice issue, too.

Organizations like The Or Foundation have highlighted how the Global North’s fashion waste is often shipped to the Global South, creating environmental and health hazards in communities with the fewest resources to manage them.

A circular EPR approach can connect environmental outcomes with ethical responsibility by:

• Creating local jobs in collection, repair and recycling
• Supporting community-based reuse initiatives
• Ensuring transparent waste tracking to prevent illegal dumping
• Sharing technologies and resources with affected communities

Through these mechanisms, EPR transforms abstract sustainability commitments into concrete, measured actions that create accountability throughout the global fashion system.

For fashion businesses, EPR represents both a compliance challenge and a strategic opportunity. Here’s how it will impact operations across the industry.

Financial Responsibilities

Under most EPR schemes, brands pay fees based on the volume, materials and design of products they place on the market.

These fees fund collection, sorting and recycling systems. For large fashion retailers, this can represent millions in new operational costs.

Reporting Requirements

EPR systems require detailed data on product materials, chemicals and volumes.

Brands will need robust traceability systems to track what they’re producing and how those products perform in recycling streams.

Operational Adaptations

Companies may need to establish or partner with take-back programs, train staff on EPR compliance and adapt logistics systems to handle reverse flows of used products.

Geographical Complexity

With different jurisdictions implementing different EPR approaches, multinational brands face a patchwork of regulations requiring sophisticated compliance strategies.

While these requirements represent new challenges, forward-thinking fashion brands are recognizing the opportunities:

• EPR encourages brands to gain deeper visibility into their supply chains, enabling better management of costs and risks
• Companies that design for circularity now will gain competitive advantage as regulations tighten
• Brands that establish effective take-back and recycling programs can build customer loyalty and capture valuable material streams
• The data generated through EPR compliance can drive innovation in product development

For designers and product developers, this means rethinking core product assumptions.

This could mean designing products with mono-materials rather than blends that are difficult to recycle, creating modular pieces that can be easily repaired or selecting materials based not just on aesthetics and cost, but on their end-of-life potential.

Whether EPR legislation is already affecting your market or appears on the horizon, fashion brands can take concrete steps today to prepare—and even get ahead of the competition.

Audit Your Product Portfolio

Conduct a systematic review of your product lines through a circularity lens, asking questions that may have not been asked previously.

Which materials are most prevalent in your collections? How recyclable are they? Which products contain components (like elastane, sequins or certain dyes) that might trigger higher EPR fees?

This baseline assessment will highlight your greatest opportunities and risks.

Map Your Materials Journey

Trace your materials from raw fiber to finished product and beyond. Start collecting data on what happens to your products after consumer use.

Work with suppliers to understand what information they can provide about material content and recyclability.

Design for Circularity

Integrate circular design principles into your development process.

This could include:

• Reducing material complexity by limiting blends
• Designing for disassembly with detachable trims
• Using recycled or recyclable materials
• Creating modular products that can be partially replaced or updated
• Selecting durable materials and construction methods

Experiment with Take-Back and Resale

Build experience with post-consumer product handling through pilot programs.

Start small with a single product category or market to test consumer engagement and operational processes. Partnerships with established resale platforms can accelerate this learning.

Centralize Your Product Data

Implement systems that capture and organize detailed product information, including material composition, chemical treatments and supplier details.

This data foundation will be essential for EPR compliance reporting and fee calculations.

Build Cross-Functional Alignment

EPR touches multiple aspects of your business and product development workflows, from design to finance.

Form a cross-functional team to assess impacts and develop coordinated strategies. Include representatives from:

• Sustainability/CSR
• Product development and design
• Supply chain
• Finance
• Legal/compliance
• Marketing and communications

Engage with Policy Development

In regions where EPR legislation is still being formulated, participate in industry consultations to help shape realistic and effective frameworks.

Your operational expertise is valuable to lawmakers who may not understand fashion’s unique challenges.

As fashion brands navigate the shift toward extended responsibility, technology becomes a critical enabler.

Centric Software’s product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions provide the digital foundation brands need to succeed in this new era of accountability.

Centric PLM helps fashion companies prepare for EPR requirements with a “single source of truth” focus on integration and data accuracy.

Material and Component Libraries

Track and compare the environmental impact of materials to make informed decisions during the design phase.

Document recyclability, recycled content percentages and circular potential to identify products that may qualify for reduced EPR fees.

End-to-End Traceability

Connect your supply chain from raw materials to finished product with detailed documentation.

Record processing methods, chemical treatments and supplier information—all critical data points for EPR compliance.

Scenario Planning for Sustainable Design

Use Centric Visual Boards to compare design alternatives based on their environmental impact and EPR implications.

Easily visualize how material substitutions might affect both product performance and end-of-life management.

Compliance Documentation

Generate reports that align with EPR submission requirements, tracking volumes, materials and recyclability by market.

Maintain historical data to demonstrate improvements over time.

Collaborative Workflows for Circular Design

Enable design, development and sustainability teams to collaborate on circular strategies from the earliest stages of product creation, ensuring that EPR considerations are built into products from the start.

By centralizing product data and embedding sustainability metrics throughout the development process, Centric PLM enables brands to move from reactive compliance to proactive circularity—turning a regulatory challenge into competitive advantage.

Companies that approach EPR as merely a compliance exercise will find themselves constantly reacting to changing regulations and paying ever-increasing fees.

Those that embrace the circular principles behind EPR will discover opportunities for innovation, cost savings and stronger customer relationships.

The most successful brands will use EPR as a catalyst to rethink fundamental assumptions about how fashion works—moving from linear to circular business models, from opacity to transparency and from short-term transactions to long-term product stewardship.

The transition won’t be easy, but it is necessary.

And with the right mindset, partners and tools, fashion brands can transform extended responsibility from a regulatory burden into a strategic advantage that drives both sustainability and business success.