Sustainable Fashion Policy

How designers can advocate for laws that reduce textile waste and drive sustainability.

In a recent conversation hosted as part of The Current—CoDesign Collaborative’s new student-led lightning talk series—Sofie Johansson sat down with Dr. Joanne Brasch, Director of Advocacy and Outreach at California Product Stewardship Council (CPSC), to explore the impactful work of advocating for regulating the increasingly problematic topic of textile waste in the state of California. Last September, California did something that no other U.S. state has been able to do, which is to get an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation passed into law through their advocacy of State Bill (SB) 707, the Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024. Sofie and Dr. Brasch discussd how EPR and policy in the state of California aim to tackle the business of fashion sustainability through regulations and compliance.

Below is a lightly edited version of their conversation.

Sofie: Joanne, tell us about your journey to CPSC and textile waste policy work. Was there a catalyzing moment?

Joanne: It wasn’t an easy transition from grad school. Previous generations got jobs handed to them – you finished school and “You’re a banker now.” But when you study systems change or policy change, your job title isn’t always clear. I stayed in academics as long as I could, but to really contribute to systems change, I had to leave campus and put myself out there. I left UC Davis for a nonprofit position at CPSC that I wasn’t qualified for, applied a month after the deadline, but it sounded so cool. After a few interviews, I got it by consistently communicating why I wanted this job.

I was their first scientist on staff. Policy and advocacy need different voices, so I use my professor skills – research, data collection, writing – when developing policies. But when I got hired, we were finishing an EPR law for pharmaceuticals. My whole world of thinking about textiles got flipped upside down to needles and medicine.

It wasn’t until 2020 – the pandemic, the Marie Kondo wave, plus media coverage of international markets – the perfect storm reached the point of “Let’s regulate textiles.” I’d prepared my whole career for that, but CPSC wasn’t ready until the world was ready. I had to give up my priorities and work on other people’s priorities: medicine, carpet, mattresses. When it was time, we did it.

Sofie: For those who are not familiar with the California Product Stewardship Council, help us understand the mission. What societal transformations are you working toward, both within and outside the textile industry?

Joanne: At CPSC, 80% of my work is leading pilot projects and helping cities, counties, and waste haulers understand how to comply with new EPR laws. The remaining 20% is writing new laws and to advocate if certain laws aren’t performing the way they are intending to – with textiles that’s diverting more postconsumer apparel away from landfills toward reuse, repair and recycling.

The core of CPSC’s work is education plus advocacy. We’re reading annual reports, assessing giant plans, reading regulation packages, then digesting it and writing opinion pieces. It’s exciting and boring at the same time. When I’m interviewing someone, I always say people think what we do is fancy because we accomplish huge things. But the small tasks are writing one page fact sheets, making social media graphics, and writing two minute testimonies.

We’re far from the only ones in this space, but we are the only one in California with the mission to have the industry at the table when we create waste programs. My job is to throw rocks at really big industries and say “Try to stop me,” because I have the big players and counties and the largest waste haulers on my board.

CPSC has the mission to make the industry change their ways and pay for the damages they’ve done. I get to piss off the industry and get promoted for that. It’s a fun job

Sofie: Walk me through The Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024 (SB 707) passing September 22, 2024 – what was that moment like when it was signed into law?

Joanne: It felt surreal because you don’t really know until the ink is there. When Governor Newsom signed it, we realized five years of consistent work had come to an end, but the hard work is just beginning. 

I like to say we passed the baton – as soon as the law is signed, Cal Recycle starts doing the work, and then the industry does the work. I slept for like a month after the signing. The work leading up to the final vote was incredibly intense, down to small details of negotiating the final format. We were negotiating with NRDC and the Chamber of Commerce over things like chemical management or the definition of recycling. It was exhausting – multiple hour meetings over two words in the bill.

Sofie: With the people who are not familiar with the Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024, what is it about?

Joanne: When we talk about what the law does, we have to set the stage of how our current recycling system works first. Right now, you pay your garbage bill monthly, and the city removes whatever shows up at your curb. But over the last decade, the volume and variety of materials has grown exponentially – new plastics, new textiles – and cities can’t keep being reactive to whatever shows up.

That’s where EPR comes in – Extended Producer Responsibility. It’s a completely different system that says: “If you want to sell your product in our state, you have to guarantee there’s a system at the end of its life.” We already have EPR programs active in California for carpets, mattresses, e-waste and more. Sometimes there’s a fee when you buy it, sometimes the funding is baked into the product price – the latter is better.

The money goes into a central pot that funds the trucking, sorting, and recycling. But here’s the key difference with textiles: instead of the state running it, the producers themselves are responsible. Why? Because the state doesn’t know the chemistry or design of these products. If you tie the fee to the design and sale of the product, the funding is available once we no longer want it, and it creates incentives for green design built into market entry.

Now, enforcement is crucial – you can’t just tell someone to make their product green. We have three key tools: First, a sales ban – if you don’t pay the fee, you cannot exist in California. Second, CalRecycle will maintain a public list of non-compliant brands, and in the apparel industry, your reputation is everything. Third, we’ll have access to more data than ever before for watchdogs and community groups working on labor protection and environmental issues.

EPR isn’t a cure-all – we are not going to solve overproduction or make everything recyclable. But it’s an economic shift that makes sustainability part of doing business in California.

Sofie: What makes this law impactful is that it’s actually enforceable, unlike the many voluntary commitments in apparel that lack real enforcement. That’s why I think this is significant and why it made the news this fall. But if we dream a little – if SB 707 works as you hope, what will California’s textile industry look like in five years?

Joanne: If I’m really dreaming, the future means clearer product identification – better labels, better designed products, and retailers where you know what you’re buying. Here’s an example: I bought two identical shirts at Target recently. Same color, same style. One was 100% cotton, one was polyester/cotton blend. The future is not just less consumption, but less greenwashing and less muddying of the water so you know what you’re buying.

I also think there’s going to be better access to circular fashion services – the repair, the upcycling, the design. I have products that I would love someone to redesign and I don’t even know where to begin in finding an upcycler or repair business. Going for a repair versus a redesign are two different services. I would love to see all of those thrive in the future.

I think a lot of retailers are going to start having upcycled collections as regular store sections. Secondhand access will improve too – most people don’t realize you can upload a photo to Poshmark to find items today. I think in five years, that’ll be the status quo.

When you ask me to dream, I dream twofold, about my job in the waste sector and my role as a consumer who’s generating waste. I have a baby. So I have had more textile waste in the last two years than my entire life. I want to drop off items I’m already going to. I don’t mind going to a thrift store because I’ll drop it off and I’ll buy some new stuff. I don’t mind mail back as long as I know it’s not gonna get dumped. 

In five years, it’s gonna be really clear where I take my items that are damaged and how to support brands doing the right thing. They will be on CalRecycle’s public list, making it easier to figure out data and facts versus greenwashing. But I also think when we get the data, we’re gonna see that the problems that are happening in these international markets aren’t one entity’s problem. It’s a systematic problem. 

I do think thrifts and secondhand sellers have been unfairly blamed for the accumulation in secondhand markets. I’m really hopeful that the future of this program will show that if yes, we’re contributing to the problem, then yes, we’re also helping fund the solutions. The future will just be more clear. However, no, I don’t think overproduction will be solved within the coming five years. I think we’re still going to have a lot of polyester and a lot of microfibers. But yeah, I love dreaming.

Sofie: I think dreaming is in scarcity these days, so thank you for painting that picture for us. What can students and emerging designers do right now to support this transition? 

Joanne: You know what’s interesting? At the big brands, I’ve seen a shift in design teams having backgrounds in sustainability and compliance. Future designers need to understand they’re designing for compliance. There’s still going to be art and the work will still be led by creativity, but coming into a job with art skills plus some sort of science background is going to be critical. Designers need to know how to be methodical and how to interpret data.

The intersection of arts and sciences is important. When you look for jobs and expand your career, it’s okay to put your toes in a couple different things. You might not like textile design, but you might really like solar panels. Don’t limit yourself to one product or just one task. Recognize that your field is interconnected with others more than ever before.

Sofie: That’s lovely advice. It is encouraging us to be agnostic and curious because we don’t know where that knowledge will take us. What concrete actions would you recommend to design students who want to understand the regulatory landscape they’ll be working in?

Joanne: Get on mailing lists for government programs and nonprofits, such as our Textile Task Force STRAT or ReMake – they send news right to your inbox. Show up to events, especially government run hearings or meetings. I think everyone from the industry agrees that we need private-public partnerships, but few people from the industry want to go to public meetings because they’re frankly quite boring. They’re not catered and everyone’s in a suit. But attend meetings like the CalRecycle textile hearing on September 9, 2025,” which was hybrid, and put it on your resume. Listen to the proceedings and realize that you’re setting yourself up to understand regulations and government requirements. We also have a student working group, USTRAT, where people nationwide – students, professors, staff – share research and projects. Cross pollination is really important.

Sofie: Acknowledging that laws are not passed in a political vacuum, how has the political shift influenced your strategy for educating on and advocating for EPR laws and compliance work?

Joanne: We hit the gas. It’s not the time to hit the brakes. The point of what the federal administration’s trying to achieve is to overwhelm the public, exhaust people and confuse them about what’s actually happening. So focus on your regional government and show up. New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Massachusetts are all states that have proposals and regulatory initiatives underway.

CPSC is doing a solar panel bill right now, and if you know anything of what’s happening with China and critical minerals, this is not the time to regulate solar panels. But even with knowing that there are actors who are not negotiating in good faith, we’re doing it anyway. I’d rather lose trying hard. Even if I get torn apart in the media, I will have communicated that solar panels are a problem that need a solution. 

So again, hit the gas, not the brakes.

Additional Resources

Survey to sign up for Strat (Statewide Textile Recovery Act task force)

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