Policy Recommendations
As part of its contribution to the ongoing EU policy debate on textiles recycling, PESCO-UP will produce policy recommendations aimed at informing and supporting decision-makers. These briefs will translate project findings into clear policy-relevant insights and actionable recommendations, addressing current and emerging regulatory, market, and sustainability challenges. Targeted primarily at EU and national policy makers, the policy briefs also serve as a resource for industry stakeholders, NGOs, and standardisation bodies engaged in shaping the future of circular textiles in Europe.
Report
Unlocking textile circularity in the EU: From challenges to opportunities
Transitioning towards a circular textile economy has become a central objective of the European Union’s sustainability policy. Moving away from the currently linear textile system is essential for reducing environmental impacts and limiting dependence on virgin raw materials, while also strengthening the resilience of European value chains. However, achieving circularity remains particularly difficult for mixed polyester-cotton textiles, which represent one of the largest textile waste streams. Despite marked progress in recycling technologies, the successful scale-up of circular textile value chains requires addressing a much broader set of technological, economic, regulatory and organisational challenges.
This PESCO-UP report examines the main barriers and enabling factors involved in scaling up textile recycling and circular textile value chains in the EU. The analysis combines an extensive literature review with qualitative evidence from 20 semi-structured interviews conducted with stakeholders representing different stages of the textile value chain, including textile producers, retailers, collectors, sorters, recyclers and technology developers.
Policy Brief
Digital product passports: The golden thread through textile recycling?
The European textile sector continues to operate on largely linear production models, with around 73 % of post-consumer textiles in the EU incinerated or landfilled (EEA, 2025). Transitioning to a system of durable, reusable, repairable, and recyclable textiles is therefore essential to reducing waste, emissions, and virgin resource dependency. This transition relies on high-quality product and material data. Traceability enables the tracking of fibres, processes, and actors across the supply chain, while transparency ensures that information is accessible to the relevant stakeholders. Reliable data underpin circular business models, support verification of environmental claims, and improve sorting, reuse, and recycling efficiency.
This first PESCO-UP policy brief aims to contribute timely evidence to the ongoing debate on traceability and transparency in the textiles sector. This comes at a critical moment when the Delegated Act for Textiles under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) is still under preparation. Once adopted, it will define compulsory data to be collected and shared, governance rules, and implementation timelines for the Digital Product Passport (DPP) in the textiles sector. As such, it is essential that the requirements reflect real needs and capacities of actors involved in textile sorting and recycling, while also taking potential challenges for these and other actors in the supply chain (including brands, software providers, manufacturers etc.) into account. Ensuring that the DPP is practical, relevant, and scalable will be crucial to unlocking circular business models in the sector and ultimately achieving the environmental and social outcomes the EU has set for the textile industry.