Finland Decree on Textile Waste

Governmental Agency: Finnish Government
Jurisdiction: Finland
Ref no: 978/2021
Status: ADOPTED

Finland passed a law in 2021 that requires municipalities to separately collect textiles already from January 2023. Like other municipal waste, textiles from households fall under the responsibility of municipalities; some of the municipal waste managers in Finland have piloted and put in place a system for separate collection.

Separately collected waste must be delivered to processing, whereas much of it as possible is prepared for reuse or mechanical recycling of the highest possible quality. The law also stipulates separate collection for businesses producing textile waste.

• Which Businesses Will Be Impacted?

  Given this is implemented for municipalities, the main organisations impacted will be those that are contracted by local governments to collect municipal textile waste. This may result in additional collection requirements for existing contractors, or could present an opportunity for new textile waste collection organisations to support municipalities. This will have knock-on impacts, as it will require the existing capacity of textile collection and treatment systems to increase in order to manage greater volumes of material.

Further Information | Legislation Site