Germany's ecosistant unveils new textile EPR service for fashion e-com

Online retailers selling clothing, household linen or footwear to consumers in France are required by law to pay an ‘eco contribution fee’ for recycling their products. Other countries like Sweden and the Netherlands, are also establishing similar schemes of EPR for textiles.

The EU waste framework directive requires all member states to set up separate collection schemes for textile waste by 2025, aiming for more circularity of the fashion industry.

Resulting national EPR schemes for textiles lead to an increase of complexity for cross-border fashion e-commerce in the EU, ecosistant said in a press release.  

Due to packaging waste laws differing by country, it is already quite complicated for online retailers to offer Europe-wide shipping, says Andreas Landes, founder and managing director of ecosistant. “Textile EPR will make it even more challenging for fashion e-commerce,” he said.

The fact that Amazon will control whether sellers on its platform are compliant with textile EPR legislation in France from January 2022 has led to an increased awareness of recycling responsibility of e-commerce businesses, according to the founder.

In the context of a digital consultation, ecosistant provides every online retailer with all important information on recycling compliance in the form of customised step-by-step instructions. All waste legislation relevant for e-commerce are included: packaging, electronics, battery, furniture, and textile waste laws.

Online retailers can select the service for their individual delivery countries or purchase all 30 countries at a reduced rate in the Europe package. For the undecided, ecosistant lets you test its service free for Germany.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)