Chellie Pingree, who founded and chairs the Congressional Slow Fashion Caucus, has tabled the Textile Waste Reduction Act (TWRA), a piece of legislation designed to build a coordinated federal framework for cutting textile waste, strengthening data collection, and formulating a national strategy to drive circularity across the textile sector.
The proposed law draws on findings from the first Government Accountability Office (GAO) study into fast fashion’s environmental toll—a report that Pingree and fellow Democrat Rosa DeLauro originally commissioned back in 2023.
“The GAO’s findings validated what has been apparent for some time: textile waste ranks among the fastest-expanding waste categories in America; fast fashion is the principal culprit behind this surge; and Washington must step in decisively to tackle the problem,” said Pingree.
“This legislation lays the groundwork for that response by establishing a joined-up federal approach to curbing textile waste and fostering a more circular textile economy.”
Under the proposed measures, the TWRA would instruct the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to pursue coordinated federal measures promoting textile circularity, while also compelling the EPA to draft a full National Textile Circularity Strategy alongside a needs assessment pinpointing the actions, funding and policy priorities required to deliver it.
The legislation would additionally set up an Interagency Working Group on Textile Circularity to align federal activity across departments and would form an Advisory Board tasked with guiding that Interagency Working Group.
Furthermore, the bill would oblige the EPA to catalogue and publicise federal grant opportunities open to states, Tribal authorities, municipalities and non-governmental organisations working on textile circularity, and would require the EPA to release updated figures annually on how much textile waste is produced and how it is handled.
According to Pingree’s office, tens of millions of tonnes of textiles are thrown away across the US every year, the bulk of which end up buried in landfill sites. These abandoned materials risk releasing pollutants such as PFAS chemicals and microplastic particles into local water supplies and soil, whilst also straining municipal budgets as landfill space runs short.
Her office further contends that no unified federal programme currently exists to address textile waste or to nurture a more circular approach to the industry.
Beyond the environmental concerns, decades of change have seen enormous numbers of textile and fibre manufacturing roles—once the backbone of communities nationwide—relocate abroad.
“America possesses both the resources and the expertise to spearhead this effort worldwide. The time has come to convert that capability into tangible results—and to reshape this wasteful sector into one that operates more efficiently, more sustainably, and with greater benefit to people and the environment,” Pingree stated.
Pingree established the Congressional Slow Fashion Caucus in June 2024 with a mandate to develop climate-conscious policies centred on reducing, mending, rewearing and recycling clothing and textiles.
The caucus has attracted backing from a range of groups, among them American Circular Textiles, the Garment Worker Center, Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project, Patagonia and ThredUp.
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