Why the Next 18 Months Matter More Than the Last 18 Years
For the last 18 years, Debrand has worked alongside apparel and footwear brands to solve one of the industry’s most persistent and complex problems: what happens to products after they’re no longer sellable or wanted. Over that time, we’ve seen sustainability move from a niche concern to a board-level priority, driven by growing awareness of textile waste and its environmental impact.
As we mark this milestone, what stands out isn’t just how far the industry has come, but how much momentum is building right now. The next 18 months represent a meaningful window of opportunity where regulation, infrastructure investment, and collaboration are beginning to align in ways we haven’t seen before. The industry is entering an inflection point where intention now needs to be matched with transparency and collaboration. The systems brands have built through pilots and early programs are being stress-tested, and what once lived in sustainability reports is becoming a part of everyday operations.
The Current Landscape & EPR Readiness
For much of the past decade, fashion sustainability lived in a relatively forgiving phase. Brands made commitments, launched pilot programs, and tested takeback, resale, or repair initiatives to explore what circularity could look like. Those efforts mattered. They proved that alternatives to landfill were possible and helped move the industry forward. Now that phase is ending, and across North America, the regulatory environment for textiles is shifting decisively from policy development to early enforcement. Over the next 18 months, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) will be the most time-sensitive force shaping how brands invest in systems, partnerships, and technology — and it’s already accelerating change across the industry.
California’s SB 707, the first textile EPR law in the United States, has become the clearest sign of what’s ahead. While full compliance will roll out gradually, the current phase is a needs assessment for North America, where stakeholders can identify data gaps for compliance reporting, infrastructure constraints, and realistic pathways. SB 707 is already prompting brands to ask more transparent, operationally grounded questions:
- What materials are moving through our system?
- Where do products go once they leave our control?
- Which end-of-life pathways are realistic at scale today?
- How might EPR legislations unlock an opportunity for new consumer engagement?
Across the industry, brands are cautiously supportive of EPR in principle, but uncertainty remains around definitions and infrastructure readiness. What’s encouraging to see is that brands who feel most prepared share a few common traits: they already operate takeback, resale, or repair programs; they work with partners who can track material flows and verify outcomes; and they have access to reliable data that can support future reporting requirements.
Beyond California, momentum is building for other states in the U.S., as well as Canada. Regulators are actively gathering industry input and exploring frameworks that could shape future EPR models. At the same time, the European Union offers a glimpse of what progress can look like when regulation, infrastructure, and brand participation move together. With brands already participating in Producer Responsibility Organizations (PROs) in support of regulatory compliance, and systems maturing because of EPR requirements, the EU experience provides valuable insight into what’s possible and reinforces why transparency and collaboration are so critical right now.
At its core, EPR requires clear visibility into inventory, materials, and next-life channels, supported by trusted partnerships and infrastructure that exists. North America will have different needs from the EU, but this moment allows for learning, alignment, and shared problem-solving before requirements are set in stone.
The Infrastructure Gap
Today, only a small percentage of textiles are recycled, and even fewer are recycled back into textiles. Capacity varies widely by material, geography, and condition. Despite solutions existing, the infrastructure needed for collection, processing, and reuse channels remains uneven because systems haven’t historically been built to scale together — but this is beginning to change.
One of the clearest insights from Debrand’s Basecamp Summit reinforced a shared understanding across the industry: building sustainable ecosystems requires localized, interconnected infrastructure and collaboration across brands and solution providers. The next 18 months serve as an important time to foster strategic partnerships that unlock the capabilities of all stakeholders in the broader circularity and sustainability ecosystem. Collaborative efforts like our work with Samsara Eco, demonstrate how infrastructure gaps can be addressed through shared innovation and transparency. By aligning on feedstock requirements, material specifications, advanced technology, and processing capabilities, these collaborations help turn ambition into practical solutions that show promise for wider industry adoption.
Technology as an Enabler
If infrastructure defines the limits of what’s possible, technology determines how efficiently and transparently those limits can be pushed. Tackling the textile waste crisis at scale is impossible without technological innovation. Data is becoming the backbone of EPR compliance, and the next 18 months will demand more accuracy, speed, and adaptability than ever before.
At Debrand, technology is a critical pillar in unlocking viable next-life solutions for the billions of garments that end up in landfills each year. Our focus in the coming months is on advancing data-driven sortation through improved software and hardware capabilities that operationalize efficiency, accuracy, and scalability.
Behind the scenes, our Engineering team is actively developing AI and machine learning applications tailored specifically to enabling greater adoption of textile circularity; tools designed to improve material identification, decision-making, and throughput at the speed required for optimized operational efficiencies. These innovations aren’t about replacing human expertise, but about augmenting it, helping teams respond to complexity with greater confidence and consistency.
Why the Next 18 Months Matter
After nearly two decades working at the intersection of sustainability, logistics, and circularity, one lesson stands out: progress happens when systems are built to adapt. As regulations emerge to drive standardization and product end-of-life responsibility in the apparel and fashion industry, the systems that last are the ones designed with flexibility in mind, encourage partnerships and collaborations rooted in integrity and impact, and embrace technological innovations that uphold end-to-end transparency across the supply chain.
These next few months represent a transition point from experimentation to repeatable systems. Brands that invest now in transparency, partnerships, and adaptable infrastructure won’t just be better positioned for compliance — they’ll help shape what comes next. The past 18 years helped lay the groundwork, and this moment is about building on that foundation together.