Trading in France – EPR for textiles

Reconomy Group company Valpak reports back on the requirements for UK businesses trading in France, and on what EPR for textiles might mean for the UK.

Paris is well-known for its high-end fashion designers. But France is also ahead of the game when it comes to end of life textiles. The French government was the first in the world to introduce extended producer responsibility (EPR) for textiles; 10 years later, other countries around the globe are following suit.

Recently, Reconomy Group company Valpak travelled to Paris to learn more about the requirements for UK businesses in France, and to scope out what future UK EPR legislation might look like.

Why EPR?

According to the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles, just 2.1 million tonnes – around 38 per cent – of the consumer clothing and home textiles sold in Europe are collected each year for recycling or reuse. The ‘producer pays’ EPR model aims to increase recycling, by holding brands and retailers responsible for the cost of collecting, sorting and recycling waste products.

Sweden, the Netherlands and Spain already have plans to follow in France’s footsteps. With the European Commission also due to publish a proposal in 2023, we can expect EPR to mushroom in coming years.

EPR typically brings higher costs and a greater demand for data collection. Often, it includes eco-modulation, an escalator that offers a reduction in fees for products that are easy to recycle or which contain a significant level of recycled content. In this way, producers are given an incentive to design more durable and recyclable products.

How does the French scheme work?

Any business – large or small – that places clothing, shoes or household textiles onto the market is required to register for EPR, report annually, and pay a fee. In 2021, the scheme generated €52 million but, as the legislation is updated, we are likely to see costs rise. To qualify for the preferential rate in France, businesses need to prove that their products contain either 15 per cent post-consumer waste, or 30 per cent factory waste, or that they meet official durability standards.

Those companies with physical stores in France are most aware of their responsibilities, but all businesses trading in France are liable. Since online marketplaces like Amazon were made accountable for non-compliant sellers on their sites, they started to ask for proof of compliance as a condition for using their services. Coupled with the introduction of a unique identification code for each product, registration for compliance has boomed.

Many of Valpak’s customers operate across borders, so the international team manages compliance for UK brands operating in France and further afield. Under the French model, clothing is categorised by size and type, so jeans fall into a different category from other styles of cotton trousers, and small sizes belong to different categories to larger ones. But if textiles EPR follows the path of packaging waste, no country will implement it in exactly the same way.

EPR for the UK

The consultation on EPR for textiles in the UK stalled in 2022, but consumer pressure and CSR goals are still driving more circular thinking. More than 110 businesses and organisations have signed up to WRAP’s voluntary Textiles 2030 scheme, and research shows that 76.13* per cent of consumers agree that ecommerce brands should meet environmental targets set out by governments or independent regulators.

Challenges for retailers

Managing compliance is complex and time-consuming. To prepare businesses for UK packaging waste EPR, for example, Valpak has expanded our online data reporting systems. Under eco-modulation, we expect the requirement to rise from 117 fields of information to more than 1,000 fields. To meet the extra reporting requirements for EPR, Plastic Packaging Tax and the deposit return scheme (DRS), our calculations show that reporting time will increase by 368 per cent, to 30.5 days a year. 

Reuse sits at the top of the waste hierarchy, and is a popular option with consumers – research by ReBound, Valpak’s sister company within the Reconomy Group, shows that charity donations (49.81 per cent) and sale (27.35 per cent) are the preferred options for consumers with unwanted clothing*.

However, markets for used clothing in the UK are limited. This leads to products finding their way overseas, into systems that are difficult to police. As a result, robust data trails are crucial. ReBound’s global returns service tracks every product through the system, and it also operates a donation portal used by brands including Cotton Traders and Pretty Lavish and by members of the public https:/valpaktakeback.intelligentreturns.net/main/landing).%20Unwanted items are posted to the Salvation Army for reuse.

Funding innovation 

While demand for take-back is likely to increase under EPR, recycling also needs to scale up. To design for recycling, we need to simplify products. Material blends create problems for recyclers, while fibres such as elastane make textiles hard to sort. 

Under the French textiles scheme, the annual Innovation Challenge funds important research to develop technology or improve markets. With more than half of global PET oriented towards the textile market, making this material available for recycling into new fibres is critical. The five Innovation Challenge winners chosen in 2021 are working on projects that range from recycling polyester threads sourced from complicated waste materials, to recycling sneaker soles into parquet underlay.

Around the globe, the focus is turning to textiles. With the right drivers in place, EPR will expedite a major shift for the textiles industry. With the right support, retailers can gain confidence in their compliance overseas, and prepare for coming legislation in the UK and beyond.

*ReBound consumer survey, 2022.

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To find out more about Valpak and the services they provide to the retail industry, click here.

This article was also published in The Retailer, our quarterly online magazine providing thought-leading insights from BRC experts and Associate Members.

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