Passing the Buck on Recycling: Textiles as a Case Study of State EPR Laws
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Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a regulatory approach that shifts responsibility for the end of a product’s lifecycle—meaning the cost of disposal—away from local governments and consumers to producers or other businesses in the distribution chain. Goals are to reduce landfill waste, promote recycling and reuse, and encourage innovation in product design and disposal. The policy concept is not new; many states have long had EPR programs for diverse product categories, including electronics, mattresses, carpeting, paint, batteries, and more. Packaging EPR laws have been adopted in five states (California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, and Oregon) over the last four years, with more packaging EPR legislation expected to pass in 2025.
However, a new category—textiles—is now the focus of EPR legislation. Last year California became the first state to impose EPR obligations on producers of textile and apparel articles with the passage of the Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024 (RTRA or Act). RTRA is modeled on California’s packaging EPR law, the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act (SB 54), and just as packaging EPR legislation has spread from state to state, textile EPR legislation is already under consideration in more states.
EPR programs are distinct from efforts to prompt voluntary or mandatory environmental and social governance (ESG) reporting but have their roots in similar concerns. Just as pictures of plastic waste have helped catalyze adoption of packaging EPR legislation, the sheer volume of discarded apparel and textiles and criticism of environmental and other impacts of “fast fashion” seem to be a significant factor in this focus on textile waste. Below, we review international and domestic concerns over textile waste, provide an overview of California’s RTRA, and offer a few observations of the practical implications of RTRA and other EPR schemes on businesses. California’s RTRA will likely serve as a model for other textile EPR legislation in the U.S. Indeed, a textile EPR bill modeled on RTRA was introduced in Washington on January 20, 2025 and a 2024 New York textile EPR bill was re-introduced in the state’s senate on January 24, 2025.
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Authors
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Sheila Millar is a Partner and leads Keller and Heckman’s consumer protection regulatory practices, bringing deep experience in advertising and promotions, sustainability and environmental claims, connected products, privacy, cybersecurity, and product safety. She counsels U.S. and international businesses on compliance, represents them in enforcement matters before the FTC, CPSC, and state attorneys general, and advocates on their behalf before legislative and regulatory bodies. Sheila advises clients on compliance with laws including the CPSA, CPSIA, COPPA, and CCPA, provides crisis management support, and serves as external counsel to several trade associations. She is frequently invited to speak at conferences worldwide and is the editor of Consumer Protection Connection, an information hub on consumer protection matters.
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Antonia is Counsel at Keller & Heckman, where she counsels clients on a wide range of matters, including compliance with federal and state requirements governing product safety, consumer protection, and advertising, and represents clients before agencies including the CPSC, NAD, and FTC. She also has extensive litigation experience representing companies in consumer class actions. Prior to joining Keller and Heckman, Antonia served as product safety and compliance counsel at a major online retailer, representing its interests before the CPSC and State Attorneys General, and spent more than a decade in the Los Angeles and Washington, DC offices of a large New York-based law firm, directly involved in litigation strategy and the day-to-day management of civil litigation. She leverages her combined in-house and private practice experience to understand her clients’ needs and guide them through litigation when necessary.
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