Lorraine Williamson
Spain is preparing a shift in how fashion waste is tackled — and the biggest change may happen long before a garment reaches a container. A draft decree being prepared by the Ministry for Ecological Transition (MITECO) would require major fashion and footwear brands to do more than fund waste collection: it would push them to redesign products so less clothing becomes waste in the first place.
That is the real significance of today’s development. Instead of focusing only on what happens after consumers throw clothes away, the proposed rules move the pressure upstream to product design, durability, reuse and recyclability. El País reports that companies with more than 2.5% annual market share would have to adopt prevention programmes aimed at cutting textile waste generation.
A fresh angle for Spain’s fashion debate
This is not simply another recycling story. It is a policy attempt to reshape the economics of fast fashion in Spain by making the largest players more responsible for the downstream cost of what they sell, including waste management obligations tied to producer responsibility rules. MITECO’s public consultation material for the textile and footwear decree confirms the draft is designed to regulate both products and the management of their waste as part of a circular economy approach.
In practical terms, that could affect how garments are designed, labelled, collected and processed, and how retailers account for end-of-life costs.
What the draft reportedly includes
According to El País, the revised draft — after a large volume of public comments — includes a stronger focus on prevention by design for large brands, alongside targets for separate collection, reuse and recycling over the coming years. The report also says the text includes provisions on coordination between collection systems and rules to distinguish reusable used clothing from waste for transport/export purposes.
El País further reports that collective systems would be required to allocate part of their income to innovation and prevention measures, signalling that the government wants the sector to invest not only in collection logistics but in systemic changes.
Why this matters now for Spain
Spain has been under growing pressure to improve textile waste management as EU rules tighten and separate collection obligations expand. MITECO’s participation pages show the textile and footwear waste decree has been moving through consultation stages, which helps explain why this issue is now returning to headlines in a more concrete form.
There is also a consumer reality behind the policy push. Reuters reported in 2024 that only a small share of used clothing in Spain was being collected separately at the time, with the majority still ending up in landfill, while major retailers were already trialling collection systems ahead of expected regulation.
The likely friction point: big brands, small businesses and costs
One of the most sensitive parts of any final decree will be who pays, how much, and how compliance is measured. El País says the draft targets larger brands above a market-share threshold, while excluding artisanal trades such as tailors and dressmakers from certain producer obligations.
That distinction is politically important. It suggests the government is trying to direct the heaviest responsibilities towards the biggest market actors while avoiding the same burden on small craft businesses. Whether the sector accepts the balance is another question, especially after the high number of alegaciones (formal comments/objections) reported during the process. El País says more than 2,100 were submitted.
What this could mean for shoppers in Spain
For consumers, the immediate change is not likely to be dramatic overnight. But if the decree is approved in something close to its current direction, the long-term impact may show up in quieter ways: more repairable garments, clearer sorting systems, stronger take-back infrastructure and tighter scrutiny of how “reusable” clothing is handled. This is an inference based on the draft’s reported emphasis on prevention, reuse and classification rules.
For InSpain.news readers, the key point is that Spain’s fashion-waste policy debate is moving beyond bins and charity containers. The government appears to be signalling that the next stage of textile regulation will be about product design, accountability and who carries the real cost of throwaway fashion.