Can fashion brands be forced to pay for their textile waste?

Apparel-makers like Levi Strauss & Co, Madewell Inc, Zara (owned by Inditex SA) and Hennes & Mauritz AB have been running voluntary take-back programmes for years. Pictured here is the Zara store on Oxford Street in central London. Photo: Bloomberg

Regulators in the US and Europe are waking up to the mounting clothing waste problem that’s clogging local landfills and overwhelming countries such as Ghana and Chile.

Increasingly, they’re asking brands to pay for it.