Germany is preparing national legislation to introduce a levy on fast fashion as an early implementation of extended producer responsibility for textiles, ahead of the EU’s harmonised framework.

The textile sector does not suffer from a lack of ambition. It faces the risk of oversimplification and 2026 will be a decisive year. As strategies translate into binding rules and intentions into obligations, the margin for error narrows. What matters now is not how forcefully problems are framed, but how carefully solutions are constructed.

As Europe enters 2026, the immediate pressure on textile collection has eased in many places. However, beneath this apparent stabilisation lies a deeper structural problem: without sufficiently developed sorting capacity and viable end markets, separate textile collection risks becoming a logistical success but a circular failure.

Following the agreement to introduce a €3 flat fee on small parcels imported into the EU, several policymakers are already questioning whether the measure will be sufficient to curb the surge of ultra-cheap goods entering the European market.