Italian brands may soon be required to manage their textile waste A decree is coming that will target those who decide on the life cycle of products

At the recent National Fashion Roundtable held on July 22, 2025, at the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy, news emerged that could mark a turning point for the entire Italian textile supply chain. Minister Adolfo Urso announced that the first Italian decree on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in the textile sector is now being finalized, as a result of joint work with the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security. The decree establishes that producers, importers, and online sellers of textile products, including brands and industrial groups, must finance and organize the management of post-consumer textile waste, through collective or individual systems. As the name itself suggests, those who place textile products on the market under their own brand, even if they do not own factories, will be obliged to manage their textile waste and, more generally, the end of the product’s life cycle. A decree that will have significant economic and social implications for major fashion brands and groups, and which comes at a crucial moment. Altroconsumo has recently denounced the massive hidden impact of fashion in textile waste: around six hundred thousand tons of unsold or returned garments are destroyed every year in Europe. A reality that clearly illustrates the "take-make-waste" logic on which much of fast fashion has been built, and which will be banned across the European Union starting from July 2026 under the Ecodesign Regulation.

The draft decree, also the result of the technical contribution of the Fashion Roundtable, aims to make structural the principle that the producer is also responsible for the final stage of the product life cycle of items placed on the market. Among the planned measures are the introduction of an environmental contribution paid by producers and distributors — an additional cost paid by those who market textile products to fund collection, reuse, recycling, and information activities — and the obligation to accept used products in a one-to-one mode at large physical stores, a rule that will also apply to e-commerce and online marketplaces. This means that whenever a consumer buys a new garment, they must be able to return a used one, similar to what already happens in the electronics sector. Altroconsumo has emphasized the urgency of ensuring the highest transparency for consumers, starting from the communication of the environmental fee and including educational tools to spread a culture against waste. For it to truly work, a broad alliance will be needed between institutions, businesses, and citizens, based on clear rules, transparency, and widespread awareness. An important step that, as Deputy Minister Vannia Gava pointed out, will be accompanied by a regulatory system shared with all actors in the supply chain. Federico Cavallo, Head of External Relations at Altroconsumo, commented: «We welcome the acceleration, but now we need concrete guarantees: full transparency on costs and genuine consumer education». Cavallo also noted that «only 2 out of 10 citizens know what to put in textile recycling bins — without proper information, this reform will fail».

During the Roundtable, Minister Urso also outlined the guidelines of the Italy Fashion Plan, which aims to strengthen the system of small and medium-sized enterprises and artisans, with the goal of increasing their competitiveness and protections. These include development contracts, the central guarantee fund for SMEs, the tax credit for artistic design, and incentives for digital and ecological transition. Finally, tools were presented to certify the legality and sustainability of companies through a system of preventive checks along the supply chain, involving both suppliers and subcontractors. However, it remains unclear whether the decree will eliminate the subcontracting phenomenon in production to companies with questionable practices, as highlighted in recent legal cases that have led at least five brands into judicial administration since the beginning of the year. On the labor front, there will be a separate decree-law extending extraordinary wage support until the end of 2025, even for artisan businesses with a maximum of 15 employees. The measure, currently being converted in the Senate, also introduces the possibility for workers to directly request payment of the benefit from INPS. During the roundtable, Minister Urso also addressed the issue of tariffs imposed by the United States, stressing that «a failure to reach an agreement would have serious repercussions also on the fashion sector, a symbol of Made in Italy that American consumers absolutely do not want to give up». The negotiation, Urso explained, must continue at all costs to avoid protectionist measures that could damage one of the key industries of the Italian economic system.