Clothing Producers Required to Recycle Old Garments Under New California Law

A price tag on a sweater at a Thrift Town store in San Francisco on Oct. 14, 2008. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Thinking of throwing your old clothes in the trash? In California, doing so may soon be a distant memory, after the state passed the nation’s first clothing recycling law.

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sept. 28 signed Senate Bill 707, the Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024, which establishes the nation’s first “extended producer responsibility” textile recycling program.

The law requires clothing producers and other players in the supply chain to manage the entire lifecycle of the products and textiles they sell to consumers.

Under SB 707, producers are responsible for the collection, repair, recycling, and repurpose of garments, handbags, and backpacks, as well as towels, blankets, pillows, and other such items. Producers are also required to prioritize the use of secondhand markets and nonprofit thrift stores when establishing collection sites for the used items.

The stated goal is to reduce the amount of apparel and textiles sent to landfills, while promoting reuse and recycling.

According to the Assembly appropriations committee, California’s Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery estimates the law will cost $3.3 million per year for the next two years and $4.6 million for the year after that.

According to researchers, the average American tosses approximately 82 pounds of clothing and other textiles in the trash each year, and more than 80 percent is burned or ends up in landfills, sending pollution into the air and harmful dyes and synthetic fibers into the soil and groundwater.

State Sen. Josh Newman (D-Fullerton), who introduced the bill, said the law will “help address the environmental impacts of ‘fast fashion’ and the ‘throwaway culture’ it has abetted.”

“The framework created by SB 707 will create new opportunities for every Californian to participate in a more sustainable future,” said Newman in a statement. “By 2030, convenient drop-off locations for used textiles across the state will provide everyone with a free and simple way to be part of the solution.”

The law imposes penalties of up to $10,000 per day for producers who fall out of compliance, or up to $50,000 per day for those who knowingly violate the law.

Joanne Brasch, director of advocacy from the California Product Stewardship Council (CPSC), said in a statement that the program “will incentivize producers to adopt less wasteful production and greener designs.”

The bill attracted support from some big-name companies and organizations, including IKEA, Goodwill, Sierra Club California, Everlane, Reformation, and Boardriders. Certain companies such as IKEA and Patagonia already offer recycling programs.

Textile recycling is on the rise across the country, said Peter Majeranowski, CEO of Circ Inc., a textile recycler.

“We’ve seen the fashion industry really step up to adopt fibers and yarns with lower impacts,” he said in a statement.

Those opposed to the bill included the American Apparel & Footwear Association and the California Chamber of Commerce.

The law sets up a stewardship program whereby producers of apparel or textile articles must create a producer responsibility organization (PRO), which is modeled after similar European programs. The PRO must be approved by the state Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery.

The law also creates a fund in the State Treasury into which PROs will deposit fees, to be used by the department to implement and enforce the law. The department will also post on its website the producers which are in compliance with the program.

SB 707 also requires an online marketplace to notify the department and the PRO of all third-party sellers with sales of apparel or textile items totaling over $1 million in the previous year on their marketplace. The platform must also provide those sellers with information about the California law.

The bill passed the assembly in a 61–11 vote on Aug. 28. Two days later, it passed the Senate 32–8.