What Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Means for Thrift Stores

You’ve probably heard the term extended producer responsibility (EPR) and assumed it had nothing to do with you. Thrift stores don’t manufacture clothing, so why would it?

EPR is a policy that makes apparel brands financially responsible for what happens to their products after consumers are done with them. Brands fund the collection, sorting, repair, and resale of the clothing they produce. That process runs directly through thrift stores.

California passed the first U.S. textile EPR law in 2024. The EU’s revised Waste Framework Directive entered into force in October 2025. More U.S. states are drafting similar legislation. 2026 is when this picks up momentum globally, which means thrift stores need to prepare now, not later.

This post breaks down what extended producer responsibility actually means for your donation pipeline, your brand partnerships, and how you run your store before it arrives at scale.

How EPR Changes What Brands Do With Unwanted Clothing

For decades, the cost of managing unwanted clothing fell on thrift stores, municipalities, and consumers. Brands produced it, sold it, and moved on. EPR ends that arrangement. It makes brands financially responsible for what happens to their products at the end of life — and that changes everything downstream.

Why now? Textile waste has increased 400% globally over the last 20 years. EPR exists to reverse that trend by putting financial pressure on the brands creating it. Here are three ways brands are responding and what each one means for your thrift store.

1. Brands Are Shifting From Recycling to Reuse

Under extended producer responsibility, brands don’t just fund recycling facilities — they fund reuse. California’s textile law explicitly requires Producer Responsibility Organizations (PROs) to divert regulated clothing to secondhand markets first. Recycling becomes the last resort, not the default.

The EU’s textile EPR framework follows the same hierarchy. Most major apparel brands operate in both markets. They adopt reuse-first strategies globally because it’s easier to implement one compliance model rather than different approaches by region.

What This Means for Your Store

Thrift stores move from passive recipients of donated goods to active partners in a brand’s compliance strategy. That’s a meaningful shift in leverage:

• Brands need documented reuse partners to meet compliance requirements.
• Your store’s intake and resale data becomes valuable to brand partners.
• Partnership conversations that didn’t exist before become possible.

2. Apparel Brands Need Reuse Partners

When laws require brands to demonstrate reuse rates, they need operators who can receive, process, and resell donated clothing at scale. Those aren’t recycling facilities — they’re thrift stores.

The EU’s 2025–2027 rollout will force global brands to establish reuse partnerships in Europe. Those same brands will look for similar partnerships in the U.S. as more states adopt EPR. By 2027, documented reuse programs won’t be optional for major apparel companies. They’ll be compliance requirements.

What This Means for Your Store

The brands whose clothing already fills your racks may eventually come to you, not the other way around. For example:

• Brand partnerships could create new, more consistent donation pipelines.
• Higher-volume partnerships require documented intake and resale processes.
• Stores with clean data are easier to partner with than stores running on spreadsheets.

Related Read: Thrift Store Data Analytics: 5 Technology Tips To Drive Success

3. EPR Incentivizes Better Product Quality

EPR laws include eco-modulation, so brands pay higher fees for products that are harder to recycle or reuse. That creates financial pressure to produce more durable goods. Over time, the quality of what ends up on your racks might improve as brands design with the end of life in mind.

What This Means for Your Store

Better-quality donations mean higher resale value per item and fewer items going straight to the discard pile:

• Less time spent sorting through low-quality fast fashion
• Higher average sale prices on better-condition items
• Slower inventory turnover for individual pieces with a longer shelf life

Why 2026 Is the Year Thrift Stores Need To Prepare

These changes won’t happen overnight, but they’re coming faster than most stores realize. Extended producer responsibility isn’t arriving in one dramatic shift. It’s rolling out in stages across different regions. 2026 is when momentum accelerates globally.

The EU is enforcing textile EPR requirements across member states through 2027. California’s law takes effect in phases through 2028. Other U.S. states are drafting similar legislation. Global apparel brands operating in multiple markets will start building compliance infrastructure now rather than later.

That infrastructure will require reuse partners who can document what they receive, process, and sell. The thrift stores that build this documentation capability in 2026 will be ready for brand partnership conversations in 2027 and beyond. Stores that wait until EPR reaches full scale will scramble.

Operational Requirements Thrift Stores Need To Meet

Building that documentation capability means strengthening these core areas of your operations.

Donation Volume Will Increase

EPR programs fund new dropoff sites and collection infrastructure. More collection points lead to more clothing entering the secondhand market. More donations sounds like a win — and they are, if your intake process can handle it.

You need visibility into how many items you receive each week. You need to know how long items stay in processing before hitting the floor. You need to track which categories move fastest and which sit the longest. And you need to see where bottlenecks form before they become problems.

Sorting Serves as a Reporting Function

Sorting by condition and category is no longer just a sales floor decision. Brand partners need documentation of what you received, processed, and resold. Stores that do this manually in spreadsheets will struggle to produce that kind of data on demand.

EPR creates a paper trail. Brand partners who must report reuse rates will eventually request documentation from downstream partners. Compliance programs will require you to export reports. The stores building data infrastructure now won’t panic when those asks arrive.

Multilocation Visibility Is Essential

Operators running multiple stores need centralized oversight as donation volume grows. Knowing what each location receives, processes, and sells isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the foundation of any credible brand partnership conversation.

If a brand asks how many of their items you processed across all locations last quarter, you need an answer in minutes. That requires systems, not spreadsheets.

Related Read: Thrift Store Storage: 8 Ways To Stay Organized

Get Your Store Ready With ThriftCart

Extended producer responsibility hasn’t arrived at full scale in the U.S. yet. But the operational demands it creates are worth building toward now. The stores preparing early won’t be caught off guard when donation volume spikes and brand partners start asking questions.

ThriftCart is a point of sale (POS) system built specifically for thrift stores. It handles the operational foundation EPR programs will eventually require without adding complexity to your day-to-day:

• Donation scheduling and pickup optimization keeps your intake process running efficiently as volume grows.
• Inventory management with categorized items and barcoding tracks donated goods from intake to sale.
• Reporting and visibility documents donations received and sold across every location.
• Multilocation oversight shows you what’s moving and what’s sitting across all your stores, all in one place.

ThriftCart gives you the visibility to run a tighter operation today and the documentation to pursue brand partnerships when EPR creates opportunities. Schedule a demo to get your systems in place before the compliance scramble begins.