Separate Textile Waste Collection (2025) and the DPP

Since 1 January 2025 EU Member States must collect textile waste separately; that provision of the Waste Framework Directive moved textiles into the same league as packaging and electronics. Collection has started; the real bottleneck is sorting what is collected: which garment can be reused, which can be recycled into fibre, which goes to energy recovery? The input to that decision is composition data, and the Digital Product Passport (DPP) is being designed to carry exactly that.

What separate collection changed

Separate collection keeps textiles out of mixed household waste and routes the material to a sorting line. Funding increasingly comes from producer responsibility schemes; see textile EPR. The gap between collection and recycling is wide: most collected material still goes to reuse (second-hand export) or low-value uses (wipers, filling); recycling into fibre is expensive and selective.

For a Turkish exporter this is not a direct obligation but an indirect chain of demand: the sorter and recycler ask the scheme for composition data, the scheme asks the brand, the brand asks the manufacturer. The source of the data is the tier-2 dyehouse and fabric mill; the demand ends up on the production side.

What does the sorter want to know?

Fibre composition is already on the physical label; the problem is that the label wears, gets cut off or becomes unreadable. See fibre composition and the labelling regulation for the detail.

NIR, QR and RFID: automated sorting

Sorting lines recognise fibre type with near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy; the method separates blends and dark colours poorly and does not see elastane or trims. The passport is complementary: when the QR or RFID/NFC tag on the garment is read, the line reads the composition instead of measuring it. That only works if the carrier survives the product's life and the passport stays accessible; see DPP labelling for apparel. In practice the two methods will be used together: NIR gives speed for garments whose carrier cannot be read, and the passport fills in what NIR cannot see, such as blends and trims.

The limits of textile-to-textile recycling

There are two main routes to fibre recycling: mechanical (fibre opening; short fibres, usually low-grade yarn) and chemical (dissolving and re-forming the polymer; for cellulosics and polyester). Both want a pure input:

• Blends: cotton-polyester troubles both processes; separation technologies are developing but limited.
• Elastane: disrupts the process even at small shares; many recyclers refuse products containing it.
• Dyes and finishes: colour removal is an extra step; some finishes stay with the polymer.
• Trims: removal is manual work; separability in design lowers the cost.

The recycler wants input in batches that are homogeneous in fibre type and colour; passport data speeds up forming those batches and reduces material sent down the wrong stream.

These limits are design decisions: single fibre, low elastane, separable trims. The passport makes those decisions visible and carries them as circularity data. For the source and proof of recycled fibre see proving recycled fibre.

The fields you should fill in today

A garment placed on the market in 2027 may enter a sorting line around 2035 after its use life and a second-hand loop. The data that will be useful that day is entered today:

1. Fibre composition as percentages, elastane on its own line.
2. Trim list and material (metal, plastic, mixed).
3. Layer structure: lining, padding, membrane, lamination.
4. Finishes and coatings: water-repellent, flame-retardant, antibacterial and similar treatments.
5. SVHC declaration: presence of substances above the threshold.
6. Disassembly instructions: how trims and layers are separated.
7. Permanent carrier: a QR or RFID that survives washing.

For the wider framework see the textile DPP guide.

Frequently asked questions