In the fashion sector, environmental sustainability is increasingly discussed. The reasons are clear: the textile industry is among the most environmentally impactful, both in terms of resource consumption and waste production. Added to this is the growing spread of production models linked to ultra fast fashion, based on large sales volumes at the expense of quality and the protection of the environment and people.
For these reasons, the textile sector has been included, since 2020, in European policies for the transition towards a circular economy, with the aim of reducing its environmental impact and improving working conditions along the production chain.
In this context, companies in the sector are called upon today, more than ever, to promote business models oriented towards respect for the environment and people. Regarding the latter point, in fact, the issue of worker protection has also become central in recent years, especially in light of judicial measures involving several major fashion and luxury companies for having engaged in negligent facilitative conduct connected to the illegal exploitation of labor along the value chain.
Returning to the environmental aspect, in 2025, with a European Directive, the EPR regime was extended to the textile sector. EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) entails the obligation for producers to take responsibility for the entire lifecycle of textile products, including the phase after market placement and, therefore, the management of the good once it becomes waste. Consequently, the producer who places a product on the market will incur two types of responsibility: financial and organizational. From a financial perspective, producers will be required to pay an eco-contribution intended to cover the costs of managing the end-of-life of textile products; in other words, they must finance the collection, selection, reuse, and recycling of textile waste. On the organizational level, they must join management systems, either individual or collective, generally organized as consortia, tasked with structuring the collection, treatment, and recycling of waste.
Regarding Italy, the deadline to concretely implement what is provided by the European directive has been set for 2027. Nevertheless, the transposition process is already advanced: the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MASE) has presented a draft decree to quickly establish, plausibly by the end of 2026, the Extended Producer Responsibility scheme for textile products.
Producers, broadly defined, including those who sell directly to consumers or end users in Italy through distance communication techniques, and more generally all those who place textile products on the national market for the first time, will be required to comply with the EPR regime. Distributors, i.e., natural or legal persons who, operating in the supply chain, make a textile product available on the market, new or used, will also be obligated.
Among the main obligations provided by the current draft decree are:
financing and managing collection, selection, recycling, and reuse;
payment of an environmental contribution proportional to volumes;
registration in the National EPR Register;
adoption of an authorized management system (collective or individual);
annual drafting of reports and prevention plans.
The draft decree also introduces measures aimed at promoting eco-design, understood as product design throughout the entire lifecycle according to sustainability criteria. Producers will be required to encourage the reuse and repair of textile products through concrete initiatives, such as promoting the second-hand market and consumer information campaigns. Finally, the principle of transparency is also strengthened: producers will be obliged to provide clear and easily accessible information on product sustainability and correct waste disposal methods.
In light of this framework, companies will need to be ready in terms of compliance. The introduction of EPR may indeed require an update of organizational models and internal control systems, not so much because every regulatory change automatically imposes a revision of the 231 Model, but because the emergence of new sensitive processes requires a reassessment of the company’s risk assessment. Added to this is that, in light of the most recent legislative interventions and latest jurisprudential trends, companies in the fashion sector are called upon to increasingly strengthen controls along the supply chain in a structured way. This implies adopting concrete due diligence and supplier monitoring measures, implementing legality protocols, and conducting precise checks on contractual relationships and, more generally, on the reliability and reputation of operators involved along the chain.
Compliance once again confirms itself as an indispensable strategic lever to promote business growth in respect of legality, environmental sustainability, and the protection of people.
