Editor’s note: EPR will be explored at the Textile Recycling Summit, co-located with the Plastics Recycling Conference, March 1-3 in National Harbor, Maryland. Register now for the best rates!
Goodwill’s donation network could become the primary collection channel for state textile extended producer responsibility (EPR) programs, according to the CEO of a recycler that already buys polyester-rich material from the nonprofit.
On Nov. 9, Patrik Frisk, CEO of Reju, spoke about burgeoning textile recovery programs and the policy driving them at Goodwill Industries International’s Sustainability Summit, held alongside the Goodwill Connect conference in Houston.
Reju, owned by Paris-based Technip Energies, chemically breaks down polyester textile waste to make feedstock for new polyester.
“I think EPR could be a big opportunity,” Frisk told an audience of Goodwill executives. “Make no mistake, regulation is coming.”
Ready-made collection
Frisk pointed to California’s SB 707, the Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024, as the first US textile EPR law and said more states will follow. He said textile EPR bills have been introduced in New York (S3217C/A6193C) and Minnesota (HF 3713), and that Oregon, Rhode Island and Hawaii are exploring the policy.
He also listed Washington’s HB 1420, but that bill died in the House Appropriations Committee in February after being narrowed to a study. Its sponsor, Rep. Kristine Reeves, has said she plans to reintroduce it.
At the federal level, Frisk pointed to Rep. Chellie Pingree’s Textile Waste Reduction Act (HR 10454), introduced in September, and an October report from the Government Accountability Office.
Because most EPR programs prioritize reuse, resale and repair ahead of recycling, Frisk said Goodwill is positioned to be a central part of the system. He said Goodwill collected about 4.6 billion pounds of material in 2025, making it the largest aggregator of post-consumer textiles he knows of.
He argued that an existing donation model gives regulators and PROs something new programs would otherwise have to build from scratch.
“Now you can have a donation which is cared for versus simply waste, where you would also need to build and create all the infrastructure to manage it,” Frisk said.
Under this arrangement, Goodwill organizations could create an additional revenue stream by charging the PRO for sorting, he said, while also gaining more sellable goods. Reju would take what remains.
“We’ll take the stuff no one wants and we turn it back into raw material,” he said.
He also suggested Goodwill expand donation bins in California as EPR rolls out, likening bins to the burlap bags the organization once distributed for door-to-door collection. He cited European textile collectors operating thousands of bins in Germany and France.
Demand-side gap
Frisk cautioned that EPR focused only on collection addresses only part of the issue.
“If we let this happen without creating any demand on the other end, then we’re missing the point,” he said. A system that only manages waste, he said, risks producing “more paperwork to create a bigger pile with the same outcome: incineration, landfill.”
He contrasted the US approach with the European Union. Under the revised Waste Framework Directive, EU member states must set up national textile EPR schemes by 2028, with producer fees adjusted for environmental performance, Frisk said.
The EU is pairing EPR with the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and a planned Circular Economy Act to drive demand for recycled content. Even so, he said California’s program, as currently being developed, is more comprehensive than the European ones.
Traceability will become a selling point under EPR. Reju markets a guaranteed post-consumer, textile-to-textile polyester. Frisk said the ability to certify the state or country where waste originated will be “absolutely critical” to brand customers.
Under SB 707, CalRecycle approved Landbell USA as the program’s PRO, and producers were required to join by July 1, 2026. A statewide needs assessment is due March 1, 2027, and implementing regulations take effect no earlier than July 1, 2028. The program must be fully implemented by July 1, 2030.
Lower-quality donations
Frisk also warned Goodwill leaders that the material they receive will get worse.
Citing Textile Exchange data, Frisk said 139 million metric tons of textiles were produced in 2025 and 127 million metric tons of textile waste are generated each year. Only 15% of that waste is collected, and just 1% becomes new garments, he said.
He projected total textile waste will grow 42% over the next decade, to about 180 million metric tons by 2035. He said roughly 60% of textile waste is polyester.
Because donations reflect purchases made years earlier, Frisk said the shift toward cheaper, polyester-heavy fast fashion has not yet fully reached donation streams. He put that lag at three to five years and said the global fast fashion market is projected to grow about 10% a year, from $163 billion in 2025 to $424 billion by 2035.
“The waste we have today is yesterday’s purchases,” he said. Future volumes will be harder to resell domestically or export.
That material will need new handling before it reaches a recycler. Feeding chemical recycling at scale will require pre-sorting that removes “disruptors” such as buttons and zippers before shredding.
Reju’s buildout
Reju operates a demonstration plant, Regeneration Hub Zero, in Frankfurt, Germany. Frisk said ground preparation is underway for its first commercial plant at the Chemelot industrial park in the Netherlands, with construction set to start in the first quarter of 2027. That hub is designed to process about 65,000 tons of waste a year, or roughly 300 million garments.
The company has also announced hubs in Lacq, France, and Rochester, New York.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office has described the Rochester project as a $390 million investment at Eastman Business Park. Frisk said Reju hopes to have it running by 2030.
In February, the Northeast Goodwill Circularity Hub, a group of 11 Goodwill organizations led by Goodwill of the Finger Lakes, signed an agreement to supply polyester-rich material to the Rochester facility.
Reju has scouted about 30 additional US sites and projects output of 700,000 to 800,000 tons by the mid-2030s, potentially reaching 1 million tons by 2040. That would mean at least four to five hubs in the U.S. and Canada, he said.
“That’s an opportunity for Goodwill,” Frisk said, “to increase volumes at the top of the funnel.”
Goodwill Industries International CEO Steve Preston told attendees that Goodwill organizations kept nearly 5 billion pounds of material in circulation last year and that the network is approaching $10 billion in collective annual revenue.
