Waste Framework Directive: What fashion and textile businesses need to know

24th November 2025
10:00 – 11:00 AM (GMT)
11.00 – 12.00 AM (CET)
Via Teams

Organised by The Centre for Sustainable Design® at UCA in association with The British Standards Institution

Introduction
Join us for a free webinar to explore the revised EU Waste Framework Directive (WFD) and its implications for the fashion and textile sector, with a particular focus on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This session will focus on the introduction of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for textiles, a major regulatory shift that will place new obligations on producers, retailers, and importers related to product lifecycle management, waste, and circularity. The webinar will also explore how international and European standards can support WFD compliance as well as real-world examples of textile EPR schemes already active in France and the Netherlands.

This introductory webinar is organised by The Centre for Sustainable Design® at UCA in collaboration with BSI as part of the EU Just Fashion project. Just Fashion aims at accelerating climate transition in the fashion industry, by providing businesses in the partner countries with a reference framework and tools to shift their production methods, internal procedures and final products towards more sustainable models that are low carbon, circular and socially inclusive.

The webinar will be led by Professor Martin Charter and Dr Virginie Litaudon from The Centre for Sustainable Design® at UCA with input from BSI.

Objectives
This webinar will help participants:

• Understand the Waste Framework Directive (WFD): Learn about the key revisions to the WFD and their implications for fashion and textile businesses.
• Explore EPR for textiles: Understand the concept of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), who it affects, what obligations it introduces, and its expected timeline.
• Review real-world examples: Examine how EPR is already being implemented in countries like France and the Netherlands.
• Identify practical actions for SMEs: Gain actionable steps to begin aligning operations with EPR and WFD obligations.

Audience

This webinar is relevant for owners, product developers, and compliance managers at in EU-based SMEs and in the fashion and clothing, as well as suppliers to the sector.

Agenda

• 10:00 – Welcome & Introduction
  Professor Martin Charter, The Centre for Sustainable Design® at UCA

• 10:05 – WFD deep dive and discussion
  
  • Context and Background
  • Overview of the Waste Framework Directive: key objectives, scope, and recent revision
  • Introduction of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for textiles 
  • Implementation timeline and sectoral relevance 
  • Examples of active EPR schemes: France and the Netherlands 
    
    Professor Martin Charter and Dr Virginie Litaudon, The Centre for Sustainable Design® at UCA
    

• 10:30 – Overview of relevant standards to support WFD compliance
  • Overview of relevant ISO, and CEN standards 
  • Highlights of ongoing work from CEN/TC 248 and other technical committees
  • How SMEs can engage with and apply these standards to stay ahead of compliance needs.
    
    Professor Martin Charter and Dr Virginie Litaudon, The Centre for Sustainable Design® at UCA
    
• 10.35 – Action Checklist for SMEs
  Professor Martin Charter and Dr Virginie Litaudon, The Centre for Sustainable Design® at UCA

• 10.40 – Insights from Standardisation
  Sara Walton, Sector Lead: Net Zero and Circular Economy, BSI

• 10:50 – Q&A

• 11.00 – Close

Registration
The event is free of charge, but you need to register via rcarruthers@uca.ac.uk by sending your name, job title, and organisation. On receipt, you will be sent instructions to join the webinar.

Further information
For more information contact:
Ros Carruthers
The Centre for Sustainable Design ®
Business School for the Creative Industries
UCA
+44 (0) 1252 892772

Funding