ESPR — Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation
The 2026 destruction ban lists apparel, clothing accessories and footwear, but not handbags or luggage (CN 4202) — those can be added later by delegated act. The harder problem is Digital Product Passport data most supply chains cannot yet produce.
Who must act
Large companies first: from 19 July 2026 the ban covers unsold apparel, clothing accessories and footwear (Annex VII), and it reaches medium-sized companies from 19 July 2030 (Article 25(1)). Micro and small enterprises sit outside the ban, but they may not destroy unsold products supplied to them where the purpose is to circumvent it (Article 25(2)), and a delegated act can extend the ban to them if evidence of such circumvention emerges (Article 25(5)). Product-specific requirements arrive through delegated acts, textiles among the first priority groups.
What it requires
A framework for setting product-level requirements on durability, reusability, repairability, recycled content, presence of substances of concern, and carbon and environmental footprint — delivered through a Digital Product Passport carrying that data, plus a prohibition on destroying unsold consumer products in named categories.
What you must do
Begin collecting the data your Digital Product Passport will need, because the delegated acts will ask for information most supply chains cannot currently produce: composition by weight, recycled content split by post-consumer and post-industrial, traceability to raw input, and substances of concern. The gap between what you can evidence today and what will be required is the work. Start with your highest-volume material, not your most interesting one.
Penalties
Set by member states; not yet harmonised across the EU.