New EU Commission Proposal to amend Directive 2008/98/EC on Waste with respect to Textiles

CONSULTATION BRIEF

Start date: 13 March 2024

Closing date: 9 April 2024

Title of the public consultation: New EU Commission Proposal to amend Directive 2008/98/EC on Waste with respect to Textiles

Ministry: Ministry for the Environment, Energy and Regeneration of the Grand Harbour (MEER)

Entity: Environment and Resources Authority (ERA)

  1. Background

The Waste Framework Directive (WFD) 2008/98/EC lays down measures to protect the environment and human health by preventing or reducing the generation of waste, the adverse impacts of the generation and management of waste and by reducing overall impacts of resource use and improving the efficiency of such use, which are crucial for the transition to a circular economy.

Under the current WFD, Member States are required to set up separate collection of textiles by 1 January 2025. For this to happen, separate collection, sorting, re-use and recycling capacities within the European Union (EU) have to be strengthened. Therefore and in in line with the vision of the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles, on the 5th July 2023, the European Commission has proposed a targeted amendment of the WFD, with a focus on textiles waste.

As established in the European Green Deal and Circular Economy Action Plan, the overarching objectives for the revision of the current WFD with a focus on textiles is to reduce environmental and climate impacts, increase environment quality and improve public health associated with textiles waste management in line with the waste hierarchy.

  1. Consultation

The main novelty being proposed by the European Commission is the introduction of mandatory and harmonized Extended Producers Responsibility (EPR) for textiles, which requires producers to take responsibility for the entire lifecycle of their products, in particular at the end of the product’s life. Under the Proposal, the following elements are included:

  • Exemption for micro-enterprises placing on the market textiles from EPR obligations;
  • Products to be covered by EPR: household textiles, clothing, clothing accessories and footwear;
  • Costs to be covered by relevant economic operators (i.e. the producers);
  • New rules on textiles collection and treatment;
  • Role of social enterprises (e.g. charity shops) involved in textile collection, sorting and reuse;
  1. State of Play

In November 2023, ERA carried out a public consultation on this Proposal. Since then, negotiation are being carried out at Council (between Member States, EU Presidency and the EU Commission). In the preparation of Malta’s position on this file, feedback from the following stakeholders is essential:

  • Importers and manufacturers of household textiles (or similar), clothing, clothing accessories and footwear which will be subject to new obligations;
  • Voluntary sector (e.g. charity shops, social organizations) and reuse operators that sell second hand clothes which might be subject to reporting obligations;
  • Exporters of second-hand clothes since shipment of those items will have to be accompanied with specific documentation;
  • Waste management operators which are expected to observe a significant changes on the market of textile waste (with textile waste being diverted from landfilling to recycling). 
  1. Documents

The European Commission’s proposal and related impact assessment, as well as additional accompanying documentation and explanations on such proposal can be found here.

  1. Submission of feedback

Stakeholders are invited to provide their views on the practical implications that such changes would have at a national level. Comments are invited by email on [email protected] by 9th April 2024.

An online stakeholder consultation session will be organised by the ERA on 27th March 2024 at 13.00hrs, during which ERA will be further explain the amendments being proposed by the Commission and seeking feedback on such a proposal from local stakeholders. Interested stakeholders are invited to register through this link.

  1. Further notes

Please be informed that comments submitted, together with the identity of the contributor, may be published online at the end of the public consultation, unless the contributor objects to the publication of his/her personal data. In this case, the contribution may be published in anonymous form.

All comments submitted shall be duly considered.