US Congresswoman Chellie Pingree recently introduced the Textile Waste Reduction Act (TWRA), seeking to establish the first federal-level coordination framework for managing textile waste in the United States. Pingree is the founder and chair of the Congressional Slow Fashion Caucus, which was established in June 2024 and advocates for climate-friendly policies centered on textile reduction, repair, rewear, and recycling.

The bill is grounded in the US Government Accountability Office's (GAO) first investigative report on fast fashion pollution. The report was jointly requested by Pingree and Connecticut Democratic Representative Rosa DeLauro in 2023. Pingree stated that the report confirmed what the industry has long believed: textile waste is one of the fastest-growing waste categories in the US, driven primarily by fast fashion, and federal action is now necessary.

The bill's specific provisions include: directing the EPA Administrator to coordinate federal actions to advance textile circularity; requiring the EPA to develop a national "National Textile Circularity Strategy" and conduct a needs assessment to identify the actions, investments, and policy priorities needed to implement it; establishing an interagency working group on textile circularity to coordinate relevant federal agency efforts; creating an advisory committee to provide recommendations to the working group; requiring the EPA to identify and publish federal funding opportunities available to state, tribal, and local governments and non-governmental organizations to support textile circularity; and requiring the EPA to publish annual updated data on textile waste generation and management.

According to Pingree's office, the US discards millions of tons of textiles annually, the vast majority of which end up in landfills. These discarded materials can release pollutants such as PFAS and microplastics into water and soil, while communities facing insufficient landfill capacity bear higher disposal costs. The office also noted that the US has no coordinated federal action to address textile waste and advance a more circular textile economy; meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of fiber and textile jobs that once supported communities across the country have largely moved overseas over the past decades.

Pingree said the US has the resources and technology to lead this effort globally and should turn potential into action. The Congressional Slow Fashion Caucus has garnered support from various parties, including American Circular Textiles, the Garment Worker Center, the Climate Reality Project founded by Gore, as well as Patagonia and ThredUp.

It is worth noting that while the bill only regulates waste management and circular system development within the US, its focus on producer responsibility, data disclosure, and fiber destinations echoes the EPR and ecodesign regulations being advanced in the EU. For the used clothing recycling and export sector, once the US establishes a federal-level statistical framework and strategic blueprint, the data transparency of textile flows and subsidy orientation for recycling could affect the supply-demand dynamics of the global secondhand clothing and textile waste trade.

Source: US lawmaker introduces 'first-of-its-kind' textile waste bill · Originally published on 2026-09-23