The European Commission has adopted measures intended to stop large companies from destroying unsold apparel, clothing accessories and footwear, putting new obligations under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation into practical effect.
The package, announced by the Commission on 9 February, includes delegated and implementing acts covering the prohibition, permitted derogations and the format for reporting discarded unsold consumer products. The destruction ban and its exceptions are due to apply to large companies from 19 July 2026. Medium-sized companies are expected to come within the ban in 2030.
Disclosure obligations are a second part of the policy. Large businesses are already required under the regulation to provide information about unsold consumer products that they discard as waste, according to the Commission, while medium-sized companies are scheduled to face those requirements in 2030. Standardised reporting is intended to make company practices more visible and help businesses comply consistently.
The measures target a sizeable source of avoidable waste. The Commission estimates that between 4% and 9% of unsold textiles in Europe are destroyed before being worn. It associates that practice with about 5.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, a figure it compared with Sweden’s total net emissions in 2021.
National and retail examples cited by the Commission further illustrate the scale. It said products worth about €630 million are destroyed each year in France, while close to 20 million returned items are discarded annually in Germany. The Commission also identified online shopping returns as a contributor to the problem, with textiles among the principal product groups affected.
Rather than dispose of excess inventory, companies are being encouraged to improve stock management and returns handling. Other routes listed by the Commission include resale, remanufacturing, donation and reuse. The aim is to keep products and materials in circulation while reducing the environmental costs created when finished goods become waste without being used.
The rules form part of the EU’s broader ecodesign approach, which seeks to make products placed on the European market more durable, reusable and recyclable. The Commission argues that common requirements can also create fairer conditions for businesses already investing in circular models, rather than leaving them to compete against companies that routinely destroy surplus stock.
Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall said the volume of waste demonstrated a need for action and presented the textile measures as a step towards both sustainability and competitiveness. The implementation timetable now gives large affected companies a defined date to change their treatment of unsold clothing and shoes, with medium-sized businesses following later in the decade.
