US Representative Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) introduced the Textile Waste Reduction Act (TWRA) in Washington on September 17. This is the first US federal legislation targeting fast fashion pollution and textile waste, aiming to establish the first coordinated federal framework to reduce textile waste, improve data collection, and develop a national strategy to advance textile circularity.

The bill is based on the recommendations of the US Government Accountability Office's (GAO) first report on fast fashion pollution. This report was requested by Pingree and Connecticut Democratic Representative Rosa DeLauro in 2023.

Pingree stated that the GAO report confirmed what the industry has judged for years: textile waste is one of the fastest-growing waste streams in the United States, driven primarily by fast fashion, and concrete action must be taken at the federal level. She said the bill will lay the foundation for reducing textile waste and building a more circular textile economy. The United States has the resources and capacity to lead this process globally, and now is the time to turn potential into action.

The bill also notes that the United States discards millions of tons of textiles each year, the vast majority of which ends up in landfills. These discarded materials may release pollutants such as PFAS and microplastics into water and soil, and burden communities facing landfill capacity shortages. Over the past decades, the United States once had hundreds of thousands of fiber and textile jobs, which have now largely moved overseas, harming American farmers and communities.

Pingree founded the Congressional Slow Fashion Caucus in June 2024 to promote policies for reducing, repairing, re-wearing, and recycling textiles. The caucus has gained broad support, including from American Circular Textiles, Garment Worker Center, Gore's Climate Reality Project, Patagonia, ThredUp, and slow fashion designer and influencer Kelly Dempsey. Pingree is currently a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee's Interior and Environment and Related Agencies Subcommittee.

Source: On Heels of Fashion Week, Pingree Champions First-Of-Its-Kind Bill to Fight Fast Fashion Pollution · Originally published on 2026-09-17