Recital (48)

In order to ensure that the treatment of textiles is in line with the waste hierarchy, producer responsibility organisations should ensure that all separately collected textiles and footwear are subject to sorting operations that generate items that are fit for re-use and meet the needs of markets for second-hand textile and for feedstock recycling in the Union and globally. In view of the greater environmental benefits associated with extending the lifetime of textiles, re-use should be the main objective of the sorting operations followed by sorting for recycling where the items are professionally assessed as not being re-useable. Those sorting requirements should be developed by the Commission as a priority as part of the harmonised Union end-of-waste criteria for used textile products assessed as fit for re-use and recycled textiles, including on initial sorting that can take place at the collection point. Such harmonised criteria should bring about consistency and high quality in the collected fractions as well as in material flows for sorting, waste recovery operations and secondary raw materials across borders which in turn should facilitate the scaling up re-use and recycling value chains. Used textile, textile-related and footwear products that are directly handed over by end users and directly professionally assessed as fit for re-use at the collection point by the re-use operators or social economy entities should not be considered to be waste. As the end user is not trained to distinguish between re-usable and recyclable items, a professional assessment is needed. A professional assessment means that the final decision to classify used textile, textile-related and footwear products as fit for re-use is not left to the end user but to the persons receiving the used products at the collection point who are provided with trainings or guidelines to ensure an adequate assessment. Where re-use, preparing for re-use, or recycling is not technically possible, the waste hierarchy should still be applied, avoiding landfilling where possible, in particular of biodegradable textiles that are a source of methane emissions, and applying energy recovery where incineration is applied.