Fund collection through cost-indexed EPR support, decoupled from the resale price

Mechanism

Under extended producer responsibility (EPR), firms that put clothing on the market fund an eco-organisme (in France, Refashion) which pays collectors and sorters a support per tonne. The fix is to set that per-tonne support to the measured end-to-end cost of collecting, sorting, and responsibly disposing of a tonne — and to let it rise automatically when resale revenue falls, instead of leaving operators to absorb the gap.

The principle: the EPR support, not the export price, becomes the load-bearing revenue line.

Why this is the natural lever in France

The machinery already exists. Refashion is the agreed eco-organisme for textiles, household linen and footwear, funded by a per-item contribution from producers (~€139m in eco-contributions in 2024). What failed was calibration and timing: the per-tonne support sat well below true cost as resale revenue collapsed, and emergency top-ups lagged the crisis by months.

The trajectory illustrates both the lever and the lag: support to conventioned sorters was ~€125/tonne, raised to ~€156/tonne via a €6m emergency envelope in January 2025, then to €223/tonne for 2025 and €228/tonne for 2026 once the state stepped in with an exceptional package (≈€49m for 2025, ≈€57m for 2026) in July 2025. The number can clearly be moved — the design question is making it track cost automatically rather than via repeated political rescues.

What a durable version requires

• A transparent, audited cost-per-tonne reference (collection + sorting + reject disposal), refreshed regularly.
• An indexation rule so support rises when resale revenue falls, removing the lag that nearly bankrupted operators.
• Conditions that protect social-economy operators who carry most capacity, so support is not captured by the lowest-cost, least-social bidder.

Honest limits

This stabilises funding but does nothing about cost — it pays to process fast-fashion rejects rather than reducing them (that is the upstream sibling solution). It also depends on producer contributions being large enough; if the per-item fee stays small while volumes grow, the maths still strains. EPR support is the floor that keeps the service alive, not the thing that makes it efficient.