Environmental compliance

What are the latest developments? We’ve picked out some highlights for June 2025:

Waste Framework Directive: vote postponed
Circular Economy Act: public consultation expected this month

Waste Framework Directive: vote postponed

The European Parliament has postponed the Plenary vote on the revised Waste Framework Directive (WFD) to October 2025, significantly later than expected.

The vote had originally been anticipated before the summer recess, as a provisional agreement on the WFD had already been reached in February 2025 and confirmed by both the Council and the European Parliament’s Environment Committee in March.

The delay also pushes back the timeline for implementing extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes for textiles, clothing and footwear – one of the key elements of the WFD revision.

Under the current provisional schedule, if the Directive enters into force in November 2025, Member States would have until May 2028 to introduce textile EPR schemes.

The postponement jeopardises timely implementation of textiles EPR, prolongs uncertainty for industry and risks destabilising an already fragile textile waste management ecosystem.

Landbell Group has called on Parliament to restore the July vote, outlining its reasons in a position paper that it issued in May.

Landbell Group’s CEO, Jan Patrick Schulz also urged Parliament to bring the vote forward (see CEO Corner here).

For the latest information on textiles EPR, please visit our new website.

Circular Economy Act: public consultation expected this month

The European Commission is expected to launch the public consultation for the forthcoming Circular Economy Act at the end of June.

The consultation will serve as the first formal step in shaping a legislative proposal that is widely seen as a centrepiece of Commission President Von der Leyen’s second mandate.

First announced in the Commission’s 2025 Work Programme and framed as a flagship initiative for the next policy cycle, the Circular Economy Act aims to accelerate the internal market for secondary raw materials, waste-derived products and circular goods.

It will seek to harmonise national policies, reduce barriers to cross-border material flows, and address long-standing challenges in waste classification, end-of-waste criteria, and by-product definitions.

The Act is expected to be structured around three legislative pillars:

• the reform of national EPR schemes through harmonisation, simplification and digitalisation
• an amendment to the Landfill Directive, and
• a recast of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive

These revisions will aim to improve supply and demand dynamics for high-quality recyclates, simplify permitting for secondary material use, and expand extended producer responsibility (EPR) systems with the help of digital tools and harmonised reporting requirements.

Landbell Group will actively monitor all developments related to the Circular Economy Act and participate in the public consultation process.

The Commission is expected to table the final legislative proposal in the first half of 2026.