Extended Producer Responsibility for Textiles

How can Germany design a workable EPR scheme for textiles?

With Extended Producer Responsibility approaching, the textile sector in Germany faces increasing pressure to develop systems that are both legally compliant and operationally feasible. But turning regulation into practice requires coordination across brands, recyclers, and service providers.

In this episode, speakers from across the textile sector explore how to create an EPR framework that can function in real market conditions and deliver measurable impact.

Recorded live at the CIRCULAR REPUBLIC FESTIVAL 2025, the panel brought together Steffen Gerlach of eeden, Julia Haas of Interzero, Marie Nawrocki of Decathlon, Sophie Herrmann of SYSTEMIQ, and Carl Warkentin of CIRCULAR REPUBLIC to discuss the legal, logistical, and strategic dimensions of EPR for textiles.

This episode is part of our CIRCULAR REPUBLIC FESTIVAL 2025 series, created in partnership with CIRCULAR REPUBLIC to bring you the key debates and insights from this year’s festival.

People
Steffen Gerlach, Founder & CEO
https://www.linkedin.com/in/steffengerlach/
Julia Haas, Project Manager Business Development Circular Textiles
https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-haas/
Carl Warkentin, Founder Circular Textile Platform
https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlwarkentin/
Marie Nawrocki, Legal Advisor for Sustainability Law and Product Conformity
https://www.linkedin.com/in/marie-nawrocki/
Sophie Herrmann, Partner and Managing Director Germany
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophie-herrmann/

About
The Circular Republic Festival is Europe’s leading event for advancing the circular economy, uniting corporates, start-ups, and innovators driving this transformation. The last edition took place on May 2025, at the Munich Urban Colab. The festival offers diverse formats to explore practical solutions and best practices for implementing circular economy principles. This year’s theme, “Build Your Competitive Advantage,” focused on the strategic and economic benefits of transitioning to circular business models, while also highlighting the ecological impact of this transformation.

Further Links
https://www.circular-republic.org/

One-page Summary
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