A groundbreaking bill that will make brands responsible for ensuring old clothes don’t wind up in landfill is on its way to becoming law in California. State legislators approved the bill last week and, if signed by Gavin Newsom, will address fashion’s extensive waste problem by requiring producers to pay for the scaling of reuse, repair and recycling.

The Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024 was introduced by senator Josh Newman in the hope of establishing an infrastructure for the recycling of textiles.

‘California’s share of waste from textiles keeps going up. It’s the single fastest-growing component in our landfills, and that’s ironic because 90-something per cent of textiles are recyclable, there just isn’t a system in place to affect that process,’ he said, when introducing the bill.

It is estimated that California throws out more than 1 million tons of clothing and other textiles annually and that California taxpayers spent more than $70 million dollars disposing of used textiles in 2021.

Under the Act, producers that sell or distribute in or into California will be required to implement and fund a programme, overseen by the Department of Resources, Recycling and Recovery(CalRecycle), that will incentivise the reuse, repair and recycling of garment and textiles. Producers will be required to form and join a producer responsibility organisation (PRO). PROs will then be approved by CalRecycle.

Should the bill become law, CalRecycle will be required to adopt regulations to implement the program no earlier than July 1, 2028. California will be the first state to take action on textile recycling, paving the way for the rest of the U.S.