WASTE SHIPMENT GUIDE
Exporting Used Clothing and Textile Waste: What the EU Waste Shipment Regulation Changes
The EU's Waste Shipment Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2024/1157, has applied since 21 May 2026, and its strictest export rules apply from 21 May 2027. In parallel, Directive (EU) 2025/1892 has inserted a textile-specific Article 22d into the Waste Framework Directive, which sets out when collected clothing and footwear are waste and what a shipment of used clothing must carry to travel as used goods. Neither act is a Digital Product Passport rule. Both still reach fashion brands, because brands are the producers that must finance textile collection under the extended producer responsibility schemes Member States are to establish by 17 April 2028, and Article 22d(10) names producers among those who may be charged the costs of inspecting a suspect "used textile" shipment.
This guide covers where the line between waste and used goods runs, what has to travel with a bale of sorted used clothing, which procedure applies to textile waste moved within the EU, what changes for exports outside the EU on 21 May 2027, and how little the Digital Product Passport has to do with any of it so far. For producer fees and national schemes, see our textile EPR guide.
21 May 2026
The date from which Regulation (EU) 2024/1157 applies (Article 86(2)). Most of its new export rules follow on 21 May 2027 (Article 86(3)(d)).
21 May 2027
From this date, exports of non-hazardous waste, textile waste included, for recovery in non-OECD countries are prohibited unless the country and the waste are on the Commission's list (Articles 40 and 41).
Waste on collection
Separately collected used textiles and footwear are to be considered waste upon collection (Article 22d(2) of the Waste Framework Directive), unless handed over directly by end users and professionally assessed as fit for re-use at the collection point (Article 22d(3)). Transposition deadline: 17 June 2027.
1. Why a waste-shipment rule concerns fashion brands
Directive (EU) 2025/1892 makes the producers of the textile, textile-related and footwear products listed in its new Annex IVc responsible for the collection and end-of-life management of those products (how textile EPR works). Three of its provisions tie that role to what happens when collected textiles cross a border:
| Provision (Directive 2008/98/EC as amended) | What it says | Why it matters to a brand |
|---|---|---|
| Article 22c(18)(a)(v) | Producer responsibility organisations publish, at least once a year and subject to commercial and industrial confidentiality, "the rates of exports of used textile, textile-related and footwear products listed in Annex IVc assessed as fit for re-use, and exports of waste textile, textile-related and footwear products listed in Annex IVc". | The export performance of the scheme your brand funds becomes public. |
| Article 22d(10) | Where authorities establish that an intended shipment of used textiles assessed as fit for re-use is suspected of being waste, the costs of analyses, inspections and storage "may be charged to the producers of textile, textile-related or footwear products listed in Annex IVc", to third parties acting on their behalf or to other persons arranging the shipment. | Brands, as producers, are among those national law may ask to pay for checks on suspect used-textile shipments. |
| Article 22d(2), second subparagraph | For discarded unsold products listed in Annex IVc, Member States ensure that the different fractions of textile materials and items are kept separate "at the point of waste generation" where that facilitates re-use, preparing for re-use or recycling. | Unsold stock a brand discards is addressed as a waste stream of its own. Once it is waste, moving it across a border is a waste shipment. |
These are provisions of a directive: they bind operators through national law, which Member States must bring into force by 17 June 2027 at the latest (Article 2(1) of Directive (EU) 2025/1892). The Waste Shipment Regulation, by contrast, applies directly. Its duties fall mainly on the person who arranges or notifies a shipment, and the Regulation names the original waste producer first among them, including a producer who merely has the shipment carried out (Article 3(6) and (7)). A brand is in that position when it ships its own waste, such as discarded unsold stock, across a border or has it shipped, even if a contractor carries out the transport; where it hands the waste over to a collector, dealer or broker who organises the shipment, that operator can take on the role. For enterprises that employ fewer than 10 persons and whose annual turnover and annual balance sheet do not exceed EUR 2 million, Articles 22a to 22d of the Directive apply only from 17 April 2029 (Article 41 of Directive 2008/98/EC, as amended by Article 1(12) of Directive (EU) 2025/1892). That is the EU-wide date: under Article 193 TFEU, Member States may, under the conditions established by the Treaties and the case law, maintain or introduce more stringent protective measures, for example a textile EPR scheme for micro-enterprises that was already in force when the amending Directive entered into force (recital 33).
2. Waste or used goods: where the line runs
The starting point is Article 22d(2): Member States must ensure that used and waste textile, textile-related and footwear products that are separately collected "are considered to be waste upon collection". Recital 23 gives the reason: at that stage, used textiles "could be either fit for re-use or waste, as they have not been assessed".
Article 22d(3), Directive 2008/98/EC as inserted by Directive (EU) 2025/1892
"By way of derogation from paragraph 2, used textile, textile-related and footwear products that are directly handed over by end users and directly professionally assessed as fit for re-use at the collection point by the re-use operator or social economy entities shall not be considered to be waste upon collection."
Everything else that is separately collected is waste and goes through sorting (Article 22d(4)). The output of sorting that is destined for re-use must meet the criteria for ceasing to be waste referred to in Article 6 (Article 22d(5)(d)). Recital 49 announces that the Commission "will develop and propose an implementing act for setting end-of-waste criteria for textiles". We found no such act in the Publications Office records on 2 October 2026; until one exists, Article 6(3) and (4) of the Directive allow Member States to set national criteria or decide case by case.
The Waste Shipment Regulation adds a test of its own for the border. Under Article 29(1), third subparagraph, when deciding whether an object is a used good and not waste, Member States must ensure that at least the following conditions are fulfilled:
| Point | Condition (Article 29(1), Regulation (EU) 2024/1157) |
|---|---|
| (a) | "further use or reuse of the object or substance is certain" |
| (b) | "the object or substance can fulfil its intended function without significant pre-processing" |
| (c) | "where relevant, the object or substance is tested to ensure its full functionality" |
| (d) | further use is lawful, meaning the object "fulfils all relevant product, environmental and health protection requirements for the specific use and will not lead to overall adverse environmental or human health impacts" |
| (e) | "the object or substance is properly preserved and protected against damage during transport, loading and unloading" |
If the authorities of dispatch and destination cannot agree, the safe default is written into the law: "the object or substance shall be treated as if it were waste for the purpose of the shipment" (Article 29(2)). Article 29(3) lets the Commission adopt implementing acts with detailed criteria for specific objects where the distinction is of particular importance for exports; we found none adopted for textiles on 2 October 2026.
3. What must travel with a bale of sorted used clothing
Article 22d(8) requires Member States to ensure that shipments of used textile, textile-related and footwear products assessed as fit for re-use that are "arranged on a professional basis" meet minimum requirements. Once the Article is transposed (by 17 June 2027 at the latest), each such shipment must be accompanied by at least:
| Document | Content required by Article 22d(8) |
|---|---|
| (a) Invoice and contract | A copy of the invoice and contract relating to the sale or transfer of ownership, stating that the goods are destined for direct re-use and are fit for direct re-use. |
| (b) Sorting evidence | Evidence of a prior sorting operation or direct professional assessment as fit for re-use, in the form of a copy of the records on every bale in the consignment and a protocol with all record information. |
| (c) Declaration | A declaration by the person who arranges the transport on a professional basis "that none of the material within the consignment is waste as defined by Article 3(1)". |
The goods must also be protected against damage in transport, loading and unloading, in particular through sufficient packaging and appropriate stacking. Under Article 22d(9), which applies to every shipment of used textiles assessed as fit for re-use, not only to those arranged on a professional basis, the record of the sorting or assessment must be "fixed securely but not permanently on the packaging" and must describe the items in the bale at the most detailed sorting granularity they went through, "such as type of clothes, size, colour, gender, material composition", together with the name and address of the company responsible for the final sorting or preparing for re-use.
Article 22d(7) allows the competent authorities to inspect shipments of used textiles assessed as fit for re-use when they are suspected of being waste, for compliance with the requirements in paragraphs 8 and 9. If the goods turn out to be waste, a shipment carried out without the notification, consent or Article 18 information the Waste Shipment Regulation requires is an illegal shipment under its Article 3(26), with take-back obligations (Article 25) and national penalties (Article 63).
4. Shipping textile waste within the EU
In the Waste Shipment Regulation, textile waste appears under Basel entry B3030, "Textile wastes", reproduced in Annex V, Part 1, List B and brought into the green list of Annex III by its Part I. The entry covers listed materials "provided they are not mixed with other wastes and are prepared to a specification", among them "Worn clothing and other worn textile articles". Waste textile floor coverings and carpets have their own entry, B3035.
Green-listed waste shipped for recovery in quantities above 20 kg is subject to the general information requirements of Article 18 (Article 4(4)):
| Requirement | Article 18 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1157 |
|---|---|
| Annex VII document | Under paragraph 4, all undertakings involved in the shipment complete it with the relevant information at the points indicated and make it electronically available in accordance with Article 27; under paragraph 5, the person who arranges the shipment completes it, to the extent possible, no later than two working days before the shipment starts. According to the Commission, the EU and its Member States agreed that operators may continue to use the old paper procedure for green-listed waste until 31 December 2026. |
| Contract | A contract with the consignee for the recovery of the waste, including an obligation to take the waste back or recover it in another way if the shipment or recovery cannot be completed as intended or is illegal (paragraph 10). |
| Permitted parties | A new waste producer, collector, dealer or broker arranging the shipment must hold a permit or registration under Chapter IV of the Waste Framework Directive (paragraph 2), and the waste may only go to a recovery facility with such a permit or registration (paragraph 3). |
| Confirmation and certificate | The facility confirms receipt within two working days (paragraph 8) and certifies completion of recovery no later than 30 days after completing it and no later than one year after receiving the waste (paragraph 9). |
Mixtures of wastes classified under different indents of B3030 are themselves listed in Annex IIIA (point 3(e)) and stay under Article 18, provided their composition does not impair their environmentally sound recovery (Article 4(4)(b)). Textile waste that does not fit one single green-list entry, other mixtures of wastes not listed in Annex IIIA, and green-listed waste contaminated to the extent described in Article 4(2)(e) are subject instead to prior written notification and consent (Article 4(2)(b), (c) and (e)). On the wording of B3030, textiles that are mixed with other wastes, or that are not prepared to a specification, fall outside the entry.
Post-consumer textiles need one more check. The Regulation lists Basel entry Y46, "Waste collected from households", with the note "Unless appropriately classified under a single entry in Annex III" (Annex V, Part 2, List A; Part I of Annex IV takes in the wastes listed in Annex II to the Basel Convention). On the wording, textile waste collected from households that is not appropriately classified under a single Annex III entry, such as B3030 or B3035, therefore falls under Y46: shipments for recovery within the EU require prior written notification and consent (Article 4(2)(a)), as do exports for recovery to OECD countries (Article 44(1)), and its export for recovery to non-OECD countries is prohibited by Article 39(1)(c).
5. Exports outside the EU: what changes on 21 May 2027
Until 21 May 2027, exports of green-listed waste to countries to which the OECD Decision does not apply remain governed by Article 37 of the old Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006, which continues to apply until that date (Article 85(2)(b) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1157). Under that article, the Commission asked each such country whether it prohibits the waste, requires prior written notification and consent, or applies no control, and listed the replies in Regulation (EC) No 1418/2007; where a country gave no confirmation, prior written notification and consent applies (Article 37(2)). That regulation is repealed with effect from 21 May 2027 (Article 85(4)). Separately, Article 39(1) of the new Regulation already prohibits exports for recovery to non-OECD countries of hazardous wastes and of the wastes listed in Part 2 of Annex V, which include Y46.
Article 40(1), Regulation (EU) 2024/1157 — applies from 21 May 2027
"Exports from the Union of the following wastes destined for recovery in countries to which the OECD Decision does not apply shall be prohibited:" The list that follows covers, among others, non-hazardous wastes listed in Annex III, which includes B3030.
The prohibition does not apply where the country and the specific waste are on the list established under Article 41, subject to conditions that include sending the waste to a facility licensed under that country's law to recover it (Article 40(2)). The list must be adopted by 21 November 2026 (Article 41(3)). On 18 September 2026 the Commission published a draft delegated regulation for feedback; the feedback period closed on 16 October 2026, with 161 contributions on Have Your Say. According to the Commission, 32 countries submitted requests. The draft names, country by country, the specific wastes that would be authorised, including textile wastes under B3030 for some of them. It is a draft: until the final list is adopted and in force, no country is on it.
Exports for recovery to OECD countries remain possible under the procedures of Title II, with the adaptations of Article 44. The Commission monitors those exports and may prohibit the export of a given waste to a given country by delegated act if environmentally sound management is not demonstrated (Article 45(6)).
From 21 May 2027, every exporter, whether exporting to an OECD or a non-OECD country, must also be able to demonstrate that the receiving facility will manage the waste "in an environmentally sound manner" (Article 46(1)). That means an audit of the facility by an independent, qualified third party (Article 46(3)), carried out no longer than two years before the export (Article 46(5)), unless an international agreement between the Union and an OECD country recognises that the facilities in that country manage waste in an environmentally sound manner (Article 46(11)). In every case, the exporter must publish each year, by electronic means, how it complies with these obligations (Article 46(10)).
DPP AUDIT
Know which of your products end up as collected textiles, and in what condition.
Fibre composition, product categories and volumes placed on the market feed your EPR reporting today and any future passport. We help you build that product data once, correctly. Under NDA.
Start Your DPP Audit6. Where the Digital Product Passport fits, and where it does not
Neither Regulation (EU) 2024/1157 nor Directive (EU) 2025/1892 mentions the Digital Product Passport. The documents that travel with a shipment are the Annex VII document or the notification and movement documents for waste, and, for used textiles assessed as fit for re-use, the bale record required by Article 22d(9) plus, where the shipment is arranged on a professional basis, the Article 22d(8) documents. None of them is a passport.
There is a practical overlap rather than a legal one. The bale record under Article 22d(9) asks for characteristics such as material composition, and composition data is the kind of information a textile passport could carry. On the wording of the two acts, however, nothing obliges a sorter to read a passport, and nothing obliges a brand to supply data for a bale record. Whether passport data will be usable for sorting depends on what the ESPR delegated act for textiles eventually requires, and that act has not yet been adopted (see our DPP master timeline).
7. The dates in one place
| Date | What happens | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 20 May 2024 | Regulation (EU) 2024/1157 enters into force; Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006 is repealed with effect from this date but, with exceptions, continues to apply until 21 May 2026. | Articles 85(1)–(2) and 86(1) |
| 16 October 2025 | Directive (EU) 2025/1892 enters into force. | Article 3 of the Directive; OJ of 26.9.2025 |
| 21 May 2026 | Regulation (EU) 2024/1157 applies; electronic submission and exchange of information via the central system (DIWASS) goes live. | Article 86(2); Commission, 21.5.2026 |
| 18 September 2026 | Commission publishes the draft list of non-OECD countries authorised to import certain non-hazardous waste; the feedback period closed on 16 October 2026 (161 contributions). | Commission, 18.9.2026 |
| 21 November 2026 | Deadline for adopting the list of countries to which exports are authorised. | Article 41(3) |
| 31 December 2026 | End of the transition agreed by the EU and its Member States allowing the old paper procedure for green-listed waste (an agreed practice, not a provision of the Regulation). | Commission, 21.5.2026 |
| 21 May 2027 | Prohibition of non-hazardous waste exports to non-OECD countries (Article 40) and exporter audit obligations (Article 46) apply; Article 37 of Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006 ceases to apply; Regulation (EC) No 1418/2007 is repealed. | Articles 85(2)(b), 85(4) and 86(3)(d) |
| 17 June 2027 | Deadline for Member States to transpose Directive (EU) 2025/1892, including Article 22d. | Article 2(1) of the Directive |
| 17 April 2028 | Deadline for Member States to establish the extended producer responsibility schemes for textile, textile-related and footwear products. | Article 22a(14), Directive 2008/98/EC |
| 17 April 2029 | Articles 22a to 22d apply to enterprises that employ fewer than 10 persons and whose annual turnover and annual balance sheet do not exceed EUR 2 million. | Article 41, Directive 2008/98/EC |
Frequently asked questions
Is a bale of second-hand clothing waste?
Do the new export rules stop used clothing from leaving the EU?
Does my brand have to file anything under the Waste Shipment Regulation?
Which countries will still accept EU textile waste after 21 May 2027?
Does a Digital Product Passport have to accompany a waste or used-clothing shipment?
Sources
- Waste Shipment RegulationRegulation (EU) 2024/1157 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 April 2024 on shipments of waste, amending Regulations (EU) No 1257/2013 and (EU) 2020/1056 and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006. Articles 3(6), (7), (22) and (26), 4, 18, 25, 27, 29, 39–41, 44–46, 63, 85 and 86; Annexes III, IIIA, IV, V and VII. Read in the consolidated version of 30.07.2026. CELEX 02024R1157-20260730 ↗ · Official Journal, CELEX 32024R1157 ↗
- Textile rules in the Waste Framework DirectiveDirective (EU) 2025/1892 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 September 2025 amending Directive 2008/98/EC on waste. Recitals 23, 33, 49 and 50; Article 1 (inserting, among others, Articles 22a to 22d and Annex IVc into Directive 2008/98/EC, and adding a paragraph to its Article 41); Articles 2 and 3. CELEX 32025L1892 ↗
- Waste Framework Directive — end-of-waste statusDirective 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on waste and repealing certain Directives, Article 6. Read in the consolidated version of 16.10.2025. CELEX 02008L0098-20251016 ↗
- Old regime for exports to non-OECD countriesRegulation (EC) No 1013/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2006 on shipments of waste, Article 37 (consolidated version of 01.01.2025) CELEX 02006R1013-20250101 ↗; Commission Regulation (EC) No 1418/2007 of 29 November 2007 concerning the export for recovery of certain waste listed in Annex III or IIIA to Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council to certain countries to which the OECD Decision on the control of transboundary movements of wastes does not apply (consolidated version of 02.04.2022) CELEX 02007R1418-20220402 ↗
- Draft list of authorised countriesEuropean Commission, draft Commission Delegated Regulation supplementing Regulation (EU) 2024/1157 by establishing a list of countries to which the OECD Decision does not apply and to which exports of certain non-hazardous wastes and mixtures of non-hazardous wastes from the Union for recovery are authorised, with annex; feedback period 18.09.2026–16.10.2026 (closed; 161 contributions, record read on 20.10.2026). Have your say ↗ · Commission news, 18.09.2026 ↗
- Application and digital systemEuropean Commission, DG Environment: news of 21.05.2026 ↗ and waste shipments page ↗.
Regulation (EU) 2024/1157 and Directive (EU) 2025/1892 were read in the Official Journal versions published by the EU Publications Office (EUR-Lex), together with the consolidated versions cited above, which are documentation tools without legal effect, the authentic text being the Official Journal; corrigenda to both acts were checked; the European Commission pages were accessed on 02.10.2026. This is general information, not legal, financial or investment advice.