European Commission response to French notification on draft law aimed at reducing the environmental impact of the textile industry

The document argues that current EU textile strategies risk being undermined by the sheer volume of new apparel produced. It advocates for the French draft law's approach to modulate EPR financial contributions based on producers' practices—such as price, number of references, and company size—to create financial incentives against overproduction, aligned with the revised EU Waste Framework Directive.

• Overproduction in the fashion industry is driven by the use of fossil fuel-based synthetic fibres and globalised supply chains, leading to environmental pollution and negative health outcomes in Africa and Asia as low-value discarded clothing is exported.
• There is a significant lack of transparency regarding production volumes; only 17 of the 200 largest fashion brands disclose these figures, though their combined annual production reaches 4.3 billion items.
• The draft French law proposes a 'bonus-malus' eco-modulation system to target overproduction by basing EPR financial contributions on criteria including company size, the number of product references, price, and the duration a product remains on the market, as well as the repair cost ratio for durability.
• The authors argue that the revised EU Waste Framework Directive allows Member States to require Producer Responsibility Organisations to modulate financial contributions based on practices that lead to overgeneration of textile waste, and that the European Commission should support such ambitious national implementations.

APA

ten Brink, P. (2025). European Commission response to French notification on draft law aimed at reducing the environmental impact of the textile industry. Changing Markets Foundation. https://changingmarkets.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/NGOs-call-on-European-Commission-to-support-French-environmental-legislation-on-textiles-Open-Letter.pdf

Chicago

ten Brink, Patrick. European Commission response to French notification on draft law aimed at reducing the environmental impact of the textile industry. Changing Markets Foundation, 2025. https://changingmarkets.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/NGOs-call-on-European-Commission-to-support-French-environmental-legislation-on-textiles-Open-Letter.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=ten Brink |first1=Patrick |title=European Commission response to French notification on draft law aimed at reducing the environmental impact of the textile industry |publisher=Changing Markets Foundation |date=11 December 2025 |url=https://changingmarkets.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/NGOs-call-on-European-Commission-to-support-French-environmental-legislation-on-textiles-Open-Letter.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{tenbrink2025european, author = {ten Brink, Patrick}, title = {{European Commission response to French notification on draft law aimed at reducing the environmental impact of the textile industry}}, publisher = {Changing Markets Foundation}, year = {2025}, month = dec, url = {https://changingmarkets.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/NGOs-call-on-European-Commission-to-support-French-environmental-legislation-on-textiles-Open-Letter.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }