Fashion costs, and nowhere more than in the environment.
Our clothing habit produces round 8-10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and spits out 92 million tonnes of waste globally, every year. The industry sucks up 93 billion cubic meters of water annually, often from drought prone countries, and while it might appear glamourous at first glance it’s quite unfashionable in the main when it comes to sustainability.
Global apparel consumption is projected to rise by 63 percent in the next five years from 62 million to 102 million tonnes – that’s an eye-watering 500 billion more t-shirts. If this happens, the industry’s GHG emissions will hit 2.7 billion tonnes a year by 2030.
The revised Waste Framework Directive that received its final approval vote by the European Parliament yesterday (9 September 2025) mandates that all EU members introduce a national Textiles Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme to better manage some of the damage the sector causes, as well as minimise and mitigate against future damage. EU states will have 20 months to transpose the rules into national legislation and 30 months to have operational EPR schemes for textiles. The big question is whether the EU is ready to buck this trend and can EPR take the sting out of this endless parade of new garments flooding the market?
EPR demands brands and manufacturers take more responsibility for their products at the end of life. This includes paying fees to fund collections, sorting, reuse, and recycling infrastructure as well as consumer behavior change campaigns. This financial input couldn’t come at a more crucial time for the sector. Earlier this year, WRAP reported a crisis in the used textiles sector with UK collectors and sorters paying £88 million (€101.6 million) every year to deal with the nation’s worn-out clothes.
These problems are echoed across Europe and the industry has been calling out for support. For Ireland, the need for an EPR scheme is particularly pressing as an estimated 39% of Irish shoppers say they buy clothes weekly (or monthly) and around 35kg of used textiles is disposed of per person in Ireland each year, exceeding the EU average. Without intervention this cycle of high consumption and high disposal risks undermining the Government of Ireland’s efforts to transition towards a circular economy.
WRAP is supporting the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment in moving towards a national textiles EPR scheme. From helping inform the initial steps and designing a Textiles EPR scheme tailored to Ireland’s unique situation - and suited to the EU Directive - our recommendations and implementation Roadmap incorporate stakeholder needs across the value chain. It builds on Ireland’s existing EPR schemes for other problematic waste streams, for example product packaging and waste electricals/electronics, and environmental policies.
It will avoid disrupting Ireland’s established used textiles sector, which includes collectors, sorters and recyclers. Stakeholders were keen to emphasise the need to protect existing organisations from any unintended negative impacts. No one wants to derail effective mechanisms like the 432 charity shops already diverting 11,300 tonnes of textiles from landfill and incineration in 2023, alone.
Once designed and enacted, we believe the scheme will become a key mechanism for delivering Ireland’s circular economy ambitions and tackling the nation’s fashion and textile waste effectively. The move will put Ireland at the forefront of the EPR trend soon to sweep Europe.
It’s a pattern that will be emulated and inspire different looks, and will unpick some of the damage impacted by our fashion fixation.