Every second, a refuse truck’s worth of clothing is landfilled or burned. California’s SB 707 Responsible Textile Recovery Act is designed to close that gap and has recently, CalRecycle – the state’s enforcement arm for waste management, recycling and environmental protection,– selected a producer responsibility organization (PRO) to lead the way.
On March 1, CalRecycle named Landbell USA to manage implementation of the legislation. Landbell USA is the New York-based subsidiary of the Landbell Group, which runs one of the first textile PRO entities through its European Recycling Platform in the Netherlands.
Allyson Williams, environmental program manager at CalRecycle spoke about the necessity of EPR legislation to mitigate the growing textile waste problem at the 2026 Textile Recovery Summit.
“Nationally, about 85% of our clothing is disposed of, although 95% of textiles are reusable or recyclable,” she said. “The Responsible Textile Recovery Act requires producers to form and join a producer responsibility organization to develop and operate an EPR program that facilitates the collection, transportation, sorting, reuse and recycling of textiles and apparel by responsible end markets.”
Paying into the program
SB 707 comes with a funding structure creating a chain of responsibility.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 707 into law in September 2024, designating California as the first state to pass EPR legislation for textiles and apparel. Three organizations submitted applications during the process including Landbell USA as well as the Circular Textile Alliance and the Textile Renewal Alliance, both based in Sacramento.
Producers of covered textiles and apparel are required to join the approved PRO by July 1, 2026. The PRO carries most of the program’s weight, with Landbell USA assuming responsibility for the funding and implementation.
CalRecycle serves as the oversight and enforcement arm of the program, responsible for reviewing stewardship plans, conducting audits and taking action against non-compliant entities.
“We can inspect all sorts of regulated entities and conduct enforcement, which sometimes includes assessing penalties to ensure compliance,” Williams said.
SB 707 uses a tiered system to determine which producer or company in the supply chain is on the hook for compliance.
Williams explained the fee structure, saying: “The per unit fee is required to reflect sales volumes, existing collection, repair, reuse and recycling programs of the producer, as well as the cost of reusing, repairing and managing their specific covered products” — intentionally rewarding better design and penalizing harder-to-manage materials.
At the top of the chain is the manufacturer who owns or licenses the brand. If that company has no presence in California, responsibility shifts to the brand owner. If the brand owner is also out of reach, it falls to the exclusive licensee.
“If the manufacturer, the brand owner and the exclusive licensee are not in the state, then the producer would be the importer who’s selling or offering for sale the product into the state, and if none of them are in California, then it can go all the way down to the distributor, the wholesaler or the retailer level,” Williams said.
The structure is designed to ensure that someone is always accountable, regardless of where a product originates, she said.
There is some flexibility built in: Any entity in the supply chain can voluntarily step up and assume responsibility on behalf of others. A manufacturer, for instance, could choose to take on full compliance duties and formally relieve its importers and distributors of that obligation, Williams said.
When asked about pitfalls like California’s carpet recovery program, which experienced eco-modulated fee failures, Williams acknowledged some hurdles.
“The regulatory process for textiles is going to take in all of the stakeholder input and the lessons that we’ve all individually learned from the implementation of stewardship programs, and try to reflect that into implementing, interpreting and making specific this law,” she said.
“We need to do it right,” she added.
That process is already underway, and deadlines are looming.
The work ahead
Landbell USA takes the reins of a program with a tight road map and journey ahead.
The PRO must submit its first needs assessment to CalRecycle by March 1, 2027, giving the organization roughly a year to evaluate existing infrastructure, identify gaps in collection and recycling capacity and lay the groundwork for a statewide program.
CalRecycle will then have 90 days to approve, conditionally approve or disapprove it.
Regulations are expected no earlier than July 2028, after which Landbell USA will have 12 months to submit a full stewardship plan. By July 1, 2030, an approved plan must be in place, or producers will be considered non-compliant.
The program will begin three months after the plan approval and must be fully implemented one year after plan approval.
“Clothing and apparel are such an integral part of our daily experience that it’s really easy to overlook what problems they can cause in the environment. The way we design, manufacture and discard products has an impact,” Williams said.
Industry response
Industry groups and nonprofits are already signaling their support for the program and their active participation as stakeholders.
“Goodwill has spent decades keeping goods in use and out of landfills, but the scale of today’s textile waste crisis requires collective action,” said Nicole Suydam, president and CEO of Goodwill of Orange County and chair of the Association of California Goodwills, in a statement. “SB 707 is a critical step forward, and we look forward to partnering with CalRecycle and Landbell USA to expand reuse and recycling opportunities as well as workforce development across the state.”
The National Stewardship Action Council (NSAC) echoed Goodwill’s sentiments.
“The selection of a textile PRO represents a critical milestone in moving landmark policy into operational practice. Successful implementation of SB 707 will require collaboration, transparency, innovation, and strong stakeholder engagement across the textile value chain,” the organization said in a statement.
Heidi Sanborn, NSAC’s executive director and CEO, is a member of Landbell’s advisory committee, which brings together additional perspectives from policy and legislation, municipal outreach, eco-design and digital product passports, footwear deconstruction, academic curriculum reform, spinner innovation and community creative hubs, according to the organization.
