The European Parliament has voted on crucial circular economy laws to curtail food and textile waste and make the automotive sector more sustainable. How did it go?
Circularity stays high on the EU agenda. In her speech on the State of the European Union, Commission President Von der Leyen restated the need to create “a truly circular economy”, and “move faster” to deliver the Circular Economy Act.
In the same days, the European Parliament voted on two crucial circular economy laws: one to tackle food and textile waste, and another to reduce the environmental footprint of vehicles from design to disposal.
Yet, amidst a wide deregulatory push and against the backdrop of a deepening waste crisis, the European Parliament’s mixed response fell short of the action needed, warned the European Environmental Bureau (EEB).
Half a loaf only
At the September plenary session, Members of the European Parliament endorsed the deal on the revision of the Waste Framework Directive, setting EU goals to cut food waste by 2030 and introducing new measures to address the rising tide of textile waste.
For the first time, the EU will have binding food waste reduction targets: 10% for processing and manufacturing, and 30% per capita for retail, restaurants, food services, and households. However, campaigners warn that this will not be enough.
An estimated 40% of food is wasted globally, causing around 8–10% of global emissions, and using about 28% of the world’s agricultural land area, larger than China and India combined. Alongside organisations from 20 EU countries, the EEB has long advocated for legally-binding targets to halve Europe’s food waste from farm to fork, in order to save emissions and costs, and honour EU international commitments.
Fynn Hauschke, Senior Policy Officer for Circular Economy and Waste at the EEB, said:
By settling for less, the Parliament is ignoring the scale of the crisis, missing a crucial chance to cut emissions, and putting food security and nature further at risk.
Uneven stitching
Regarding textiles, the revised law aims to hold brands more financially accountable for the waste they generate.
Huge amounts of used clothing are being discarded globally, with 12.6 million tonnes of textile waste generated annually in the EU alone. Europe’s textile overconsumption makes alarmingly high contributions to global carbon emissions, natural resource use, biodiversity loss, and microplastic pollution. The textile and fashion waste crisis is the focus of this year’s World Clean Up Day.
With the new law, Member States must set up Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes by May 2028, requiring producers to cover the costs of collecting and sorting post-consumer textiles, as well as activities related to reuse, repair and recycling.
However, the EEB warned the long deadline will delay urgently needed support for municipalities and the second-hand sector, and urged Member States not to put off setting up the schemes.
Emily Macintosh, Senior Policy Officer for Textiles at the EEB, said:
We need ambitious EPR schemes for textiles to give and the second-hand sector the financial support they need to cope with growing volumes of discarded clothing. EPR must also provide support for countries like Ghana and Kenya, which are heavily affected by EU discarded clothing exports.
The global second-hand clothing trade has increased sevenfold in the past four decades, and Ghana is one of the world’s largest importers of used attire. In 2023, Ghana imported 53,970 tonnes of used clothing from EU countries. However, 40% of these imports cannot be sold, causing major social and environmental challenges.
Macintosh added:
It’s time for EPR schemes to tackle overproduction head-on by penalising companies for the harmful commercial practices which lead to so much waste generation in the first place.
Vehicles: progress stalled by industry pressure
The Parliament also voted on the revision and merger of two outdated directives (End-of-Life Vehicles and 3R Type-Approval) into a new regulation on vehicle design and on end-of-life management.
Caving under the pressure of the automotive industry, Members of the European Parliament weakened the Commission’s proposal, which was meant to boost circularity in the sector and reduce the environmental impacts of vehicle design, production, use, and end-of-life treatment.
Notably, the Parliament did not address unsustainable material use, ignoring the need for fewer and smaller vehicles; prioritised recycling instead of more effective strategies such as durability, reuse, and repair; and failed to hold producers accountable for used vehicles exported to non-EU countries.
Hauschke commented:
EU lawmakers keep ignoring the core problem: the ever-increasing size and number of cars is driving up material use and environmental impact. Without tackling this trend – and requiring manufacturers to design vehicles to be durable and repairable from the outset – the regulation will not put the sector on a truly sustainable path.
The Parliament and Member States will now enter negotiations to finalise the new regulation, and are expected to reach an agreement by the end of the year.
Squaring the circle
Mixed progress on food waste, textiles and vehicles is unfolding in the context of a strong deregulatory push. The European Commission is advancing a wave of so-called simplification initiatives – the Omnibus packages – which will also affect Circular Economy laws, with implications for sustainability reporting, due diligence, permitting, and Extended Producer Responsibility.
For the EEB, however, “what the Commission calls simplification is in fact deregulation of the very laws that protect people and planet”, threatening to “unravel the safeguards Europe relies on. True simplification should mean efficient and smarter implementation, harmonising methods, aligning definitions – not lowering standards or targets”.
This is why the upcoming Circular Economy Act will be a crucial test. In recent years, the EU has launched policies to cut waste, make products more sustainable, and increase transparency for consumers. Yet these efforts have too often lacked the bite needed to confront Europe’s overconsumption and overdependence on raw material extraction – the root causes of the environmental and climate crisis.
In her State of the Union speech, Von der Leyen presented the Act as a way to secure raw materials for industry under a “made in the EU” banner. But squaring the circle will require more than that, warns the EEB: a true circular economy – one that benefits both people and businesses at the lowest environmental cost – “is about rethinking extraction and use, not fuelling an ever-growing engine. Addressing only heavy industry while ignoring consumer goods shows just how shallow this vision still is”.
