The ESPR ban on destroying unsold clothing and footwear

Almost all discussion of ESPR concerns the Digital Product Passport, which for most product groups is years away and depends on delegated acts that do not exist. Meanwhile, a different part of the same regulation started binding on 19 July 2026 — with no delegated act required.

If you are a large enterprise selling clothing or shoes in the EU, you are subject to it now.

The prohibition

ESPR Article 25: "From 19 July 2026, the destruction of unsold consumer products as listed in Annex VII shall be prohibited."

Annex VII currently covers apparel, clothing accessories — hats, ties, belts, scarves and similar — and footwear.

Note that footwear is included even though it was deferred from the passport programme entirely. The destruction ban and the passport are independent mechanisms within the same regulation, and being outside one says nothing about the other. See footwear.

Who it applies to

Article 25(2) contains an anti-circumvention rule: exempt operators must not destroy unsold products supplied to them in order to circumvent the ban. Routing stock through a small entity to dispose of it is explicitly contemplated and prohibited.

The ten derogations

A delegated regulation adopted on 9 February 2026 sets out the grounds on which destruction remains permitted:

1. The product is dangerous.
2. It does not comply with legal requirements.
3. It infringes intellectual property rights.
4. An IP licence has expired.
5. It is unsuitable for reuse.
6. It is damaged.
7. It has a design or manufacturing defect.
8. It was not accepted for donation.
9. A social-economy entity that received it found no recipient.
10. It was prepared for reuse but no recipient was found.

The disclosure duty

Article 24 requires operators who discard unsold consumer products — or have them discarded on their behalf — to publish annually, in a clear and visible manner, at least on an easily accessible page of their own website:

• The number and weight discarded per year, by type or category.
• The reasons, and any derogation relied on.
• The proportion sent to preparing for reuse (including refurbishment and remanufacturing), to recycling, to other recovery including energy recovery, and to disposal — following the waste hierarchy.
• Prevention measures taken and planned.

Companies already producing CSRD sustainability reporting may include it there instead. Note that the CSRD scope was cut sharply by Directive (EU) 2026/470 — the threshold is now more than 1,000 employees and more than EUR 450 million net turnover — so many companies that expected to report under CSRD no longer will, and will need a website page instead.

Supporting documentation must be provided to the Commission or a national authority within 30 days of a request. Records must be kept for five years from the disclosure date.

The first disclosure covers the first full financial year during which the regulation is in force. The standardised disclosure template applies from 2 March 2027 — 50-plus product categories, commodity codes, and statements from waste treatment operators.

What this means in practice

You probably do not know your own numbers

The disclosure requires quantity and weight by category, and the split across four treatment routes. Most retailers cannot produce this, because unsold and returned stock leaves through a third party whose reporting does not break down by disposal route.

The first task is not policy. It is asking your returns processor and waste contractor, in writing, exactly what happens to graded-unsellable stock and in what quantities.

Returns are the exposure

Most merchants think of "unsold stock" as end-of-season inventory. In an e-commerce operation the larger volume is usually returns graded as unsellable — and if those are being destroyed, that is the practice the ban prohibits.

Donation has to become a process

Derogation 8 requires either three offers to suitable social-economy entities or an eight-week public offer on your own website. Both need lead time and documentation. Neither works as a decision made at the point of disposal.

Why this belongs on a DPP site

Because it is the clearest available illustration of a pattern that will repeat: ESPR obligations do not arrive as one event. A clothing retailer reading that the textile passport is indicatively 2027 might reasonably conclude there is nothing to do. That conclusion is wrong, and it was wrong two days before this page was published.

It is also a reminder that the parts of ESPR that bind first are the ones requiring no delegated act. When looking for near-term exposure, read the framework's directly applicable chapters before the passport ones.

Questions

Sources

• Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 (ESPR), Chapter VI and Annex VII
• Commission — new EU rules stop destruction of unsold clothes and shoes (9 Feb 2026)
• Council — simplification of sustainability reporting (CSRD scope change)