Destroying unsold goods becomes illegal!

17 July 2026

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From July 19, 2026, large companies can no longer destroy unsold textile products. Here’s what the ESPR Regulation requires — obligations, exemptions, and the new rules.

In summary

• From July 19, 2026, the ban applies to large companies

• It covers clothing, accessories, and footwear

• Donation, reuse, and refurbishment are permitted

• Limited exemptions are provided

• Annual transparency obligations apply

For years we’ve lived with environmental countdowns that always seem far enough away to be put off. 2030 to halve emissions. 2050 for climate neutrality. Dates that enter public debate, shape strategies and action plans, but often end up looking like distant milestones.

Every so often, though, a different kind of deadline arrives — one that doesn’t concern a future commitment but changes the rules of the present. Not a goal to chase, but a line that, once crossed, redefines what is considered acceptable.

That’s what’s happening with the new European Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR). For the first time, the European Union is introducing a ban on destroying unsold goods in certain fashion sectors. This goes beyond simple regulatory compliance — it marks a shift in perspective. What was allowed until yesterday becomes, from today, incompatible with a production model aimed at reducing waste, valuing resources, and promoting a truly circular economy.

The line has a precise date, and it has arrived: July 19, 2026. From this date, for large European companies, destroying unsold clothing, accessories, and footwear is no longer a logistical-commercial practice — it is a legal violation.

And the numbers explain on their own why this could no longer wait: every year in Europe, an estimated 4% to 9% of unsold textile products are destroyed before ever being worn. A waste that, according to Commission estimates, generates around 5.6 million tonnes of CO₂ per year. In France alone, unsold products worth around €630 million a year are shredded; in Germany, nearly 20 million items returned from e-commerce are discarded.

Producing in order to destroy. It’s the most extreme paradox of overproduction — and from now on, it will no longer be tolerated.

Ban on destroying unsold goods: what happens from July 19, 2026

From July 19, 2026, the ban on destroying unsold consumer products takes effect for the textile sector: clothing, clothing accessories, and footwear. Annex VII of the regulation specifies exactly what falls under the ban, listing categories by customs code (combined nomenclature): leather clothing and accessories, knitted and non-knitted garments, textile headgear, and footwear of all kinds. The scope therefore doesn’t cover “all of fashion,” only what currently appears on the list — but the Commission has the power to expand it over time. Producers of categories currently excluded would do well to treat this as a postponement, not an exemption.

The definition of “destruction” is deliberately broad: it includes intentional damage and disposal as waste. Absent a valid exemption, even sending unsold goods to incineration, landfill, or energy recovery can constitute a violation. Meanwhile, preparation for reuse, refurbishment, remanufacturing, resale, and donation remain fully legitimate — indeed, encouraged.

The regulation also introduces a fundamental principle: companies must do everything reasonably possible to prevent unsold products from ending up destroyed. This isn’t an invitation to goodwill — it’s a prevention obligation. In the event of an inspection, a company will have to demonstrate it did everything possible before resorting to destruction.

ESPR

Who must comply: ESPR timelines for large, medium, and small companies

Application is gradual and proportionate to company size:

Large companies: ban on destruction from July 19, 2026. Transparency obligations are already in force.
Medium-sized companies: ban and reporting obligations from July 2030.
Micro and small enterprises: currently exempt, to avoid disproportionate administrative burdens.

ESPR transparency obligations: data on unsold products becomes public

Companies subject to the regulation must publish, every year on their website, on an easily accessible page, detailed information: how many unsold products were discarded (number and weight), for what reasons, what percentage went to reuse, recycling, or recovery, and what measures were taken to prevent future destruction. A Commission implementing regulation has introduced a standardized format for this reporting, applicable from February 2027, to make the data comparable across companies and Member States.

In other words: managing unsold goods moves out of the back room and becomes public, measurable, comparable data — reputational, even before it’s regulatory.

Exemptions: when destruction is still possible

Destruction remains permitted only as a last-resort measure, in specific, documented cases defined by a Commission delegated regulation. Among the main ones:

Health and safety: dangerous products or those with hygiene/health risks (contamination, infestation)
Irreversible damage: products damaged beyond repair or not economically recoverable
Unfitness for use: manufacturing defects that render the product non-functional
Failed donations: products offered for donation and refused by social economy organizations
Intellectual property infringement: counterfeit products

Every exemption must be documented: supporting evidence must be kept for 5 years and made available to authorities on request. Penalties, set by individual Member States, may include fines and even temporary exclusion from public procurement.

Beyond the ban: textile ecodesign, the digital product passport, and the next steps for ESPR

The surface-level reading is: “you can no longer throw it away.” The real one runs deeper: Europe is redrawing the line between a commercial choice and a legal risk.

Until yesterday, destroying unsold goods was a warehouse decision — it cost less than managing it. From now on, every produced and unsold item is a problem the company must solve within its own supply chain: resale, refurbishment, donation, recycling, material recovery. And since the cheapest way to avoid having unsold goods is to produce less, the rule strikes at the root: it pushes toward production calibrated to demand, smarter inventory management, and design conceived from the outset for the product’s second life.

As EU Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall stated, waste data demonstrates the need to act, and with these measures the textile sector will be able to move toward sustainable and circular practices while strengthening competitiveness and reducing dependencies.

And it’s not over: the ESPR is a framework regulation. By 2027, delegated acts are expected with specific ecodesign requirements for textiles: durability, recyclability, recycled content, and the digital product passport. The ban on destruction is only the first piece of a much broader system.

nuove soluzioni sostenibili invenduti tessili

Our reflection: no more postponing

Here we allow ourselves a consideration that belongs to us, by nature and by vocation.

For years, the circular economy was told as a “plus”: an added value, an ethical choice, a chapter in the sustainability report. Something nice to have. From July 19, 2026, that’s no longer the case: circularity becomes a compliance requirement. A must-have, not a nice-to-have.

And there’s an interesting side effect worth highlighting: organizations that have long worked in recovery, regeneration, and valorization of textile materials stop being an alternative and become a point of reference. Those who have invested in processes, technologies, and supply chains to give products a second life now hold increasingly central expertise to help companies comply with the new rules.

This is the direction of Nazena’s approach as well, which has launched an integrated waste management service to offer companies concrete support in managing waste and unsold products. The goal is to support companies through the entire process — from correct waste classification to collection, through to identifying the most suitable solutions for reuse, recovery, or recycling — in compliance with current regulations and circular economy principles.

Companies with unsold stock in their warehouses no longer have time to postpone. The questions to ask are now operational: How many products do we discard each year? Why? What happens to them? Do we have structured channels for resale, donation, material recovery, and documented flow management?

The first step must be taken now: check how unsold goods are managed, set up traceability systems, document alternative destinations to destruction, and evaluate specialized partners in reuse, refurbishment, and recycling. Because complying with the ESPR Regulation doesn’t just mean avoiding penalties — it means rethinking the management of unsold goods from a perspective of efficiency and competitiveness.

Waste is no longer a cost to make disappear. It is a resource to be valorized and, from today, also an obligation to be governed — with organization, method, and partners capable of integrating environmental expertise, waste management, and circular economy solutions.

Edited by Alessia Fiorentino