Sustainable Fashion Law Update: Critical Legislation and Compliance Requirements for 2025

In ongoing efforts to combat the impacts of fast fashion, federal and state government officials have continued to propose and adopt laws and regulations directed at promoting consumer transparency and encouraging sustainable and environmentally conscious fashion purchasing decisions. These proposed and enacted requirements collectively seek to encourage manufacturers and sellers of textiles and apparel products to disclose potential environmental impacts, eliminate the use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in clothing products and direct producers to calculate and report the amount of single-use packaging used each year.

This Holland & Knight alert provides an overview of the recent federal and state initiatives aimed at the fashion and apparel industry. Businesses at all levels of the fashion, textile and apparel supply chain should begin to consider how they are or may become subject to these emerging requirements. For instance, apparel manufacturers and sellers may wish to begin evaluating potential adverse environmental impacts that may be associated with their products from manufacture to point of sale, reviewing their product formulations to determine if their apparel products contain any PFAS substances and developing systems to begin tracking their packaging data.

Federal Efforts

On Feb. 12, 2025, Reps. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) and María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) reintroduced the Voluntary Sustainable Apparel Labeling Act (Labeling Bill) to Congress.¹ The Labeling Bill directs the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish a voluntary sustainable apparel labeling program (Labeling Program) in consultation with the U.S. secretary of agriculture, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and an expert advisory panel composed of industry stakeholders. The Labeling Program involves several stages, each of which requires EPA to promulgate regulations to implement the program:

• Application to EPA. A seller of apparel may submit an application to the EPA to include their product in the Labeling Program. EPA retains discretion on whether to accept the product into the Labeling Program based on the applicant's commitment to meet the program's requirements.
• Sustainability Label. If the EPA approves the application, the applicant may attach a sustainability label to the apparel or its packaging. The Labeling Bill directs EPA to adopt regulations setting forth the specific information to be included on the label but provides certain guidelines for the information, including the participant's name, total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions produced throughout the full life cycle of the article and information for accessing electronic data about the product's environmental impacts.
• Verification by EPA. EPA must verify all information included on the label and establish a method for validating the information provided by the program applicant.

The Labeling Bill would also allow participants to voluntarily agree to reduce the total GHG emissions released throughout the full life cycle of participating products. Further, the Labeling Bill requires EPA to establish a database to provide consumers and industry stakeholders with access to details about the Labeling Program and develop a consumer outreach program to provide retail establishments with educational materials and technical assistance regarding compliance with the Labeling Program.

As of the date of this alert, the Labeling Bill has been referred to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce but has not yet progressed further.

State Action

Similarly, several states have taken action to promote sustainability in the fashion and products industries. These actions have included adopting laws and regulations to promote fashion accountability, limit PFAS in apparel products and regulate life cycle management and recycling of packaging used on products sold into the state.

Fashion and Apparel Environmental Accountability Laws

Several states – including California, New York and Washington – have recently adopted or proposed laws to promote environmental accountability and sustainability laws in the fashion and apparel industry:

• California. In 2024, California passed the Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024,² which aims to establish a statewide extended producer responsibility program to reduce the amount of post-consumer apparel and textiles that are diverted to landfills and promote the reuse, repair and recycling into secondary products. Thereafter, in 2025, California introduced the Fashion Environmental Accountability Act of 2025,³ which requires sellers of apparel to establish a baseline for their GHG emissions, set reduction targets and report their compliance with these targets.
• New York. The New York Senate has reintroduced a Fashion Environmental Accountability Act that seeks to increase transparency and reduce the carbon footprint of the fashion industry by requiring sellers to perform due diligence of their supply chains, including identifying and mitigating any adverse impacts to the environment and setting standards to reduce GHG emissions. The bill also seeks to establish a fashion remediation fund to raise funds for projects in impacted communities.⁴ As of the date of this alert, the bill is under review by the state Senate Consumer Protection Committee.
• Washington. In early 2025, Washington legislators introduced a bill requiring fashion producers to disclose the environmental impacts of their products, including how the producer disposes of unwanted products that are not sold through retail sales, the volume of unwanted products in the most recent calendar year and a description of the producers' efforts to reduce its environmental impacts.⁵ As of the date of this alert, the bill is under review by the state House Committee on Energy and Environment.

PFAS Bans

Relatedly, states have started to implement specific regulations regarding high-risk chemicals used in apparel to promote consumer safety and sustainability. For example, New York and California both enacted laws prohibiting the use of "intentionally added" PFAS in apparel and textile products beginning in January 2025.⁶, ⁷ Similarly, Maine adopted legislation in 2024 that will prohibit the use of PFAS in certain textile products by January 2026, with all products containing "intentionally added" PFAS to be restricted by January 2032.⁸

Extended Producer Responsibility Laws

Six states have implemented Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws to monitor the use of plastic and other packaging materials in products sold within those states. Currently, EPR programs are in place in California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota and Oregon, with several other states having introduced EPR legislation or in the process of conducting assessments to evaluate EPR implementation. Generally speaking, state EPR laws require manufacturers – and potentially brands, importers and distributors – of products wrapped in plastic and other single-use packaging to 1) register with Producer Responsibility Organizations (PROs), 2) report the amount of packaging used in weight on an annual basis and 3) pay fees to support various state recycling and environmental initiatives. (For detailed analysis of the requirements and compliance deadlines for state EPR programs, see Holland & Knight's previous alert, "Are You Tracking Your Packaging Data Yet?," Oct. 17, 2024.)

Next Steps & Considerations

Collectively, these federal and state initiatives demonstrate increased bipartisan support and attention to consumer transparency, sustainability and environmental impacts in the fashion industry. While it is difficult to predict how things will play out at the federal level, it is likely that state laws and regulations mandating environmental disclosures, prohibiting certain harmful substances (particularly, PFAS) and regulating single-use packaging materials will continue to emerge in the coming months and years. As a result, manufacturers, producers, distributors and sellers of apparel and similar textile products should anticipate that their businesses and operations will become subject to increasing regulation. Beyond the issues discussed in this alert, the fashion industry should also be mindful of greenwashing litigation risks related to marketing materials, which may come from utilizing marketing terms such as "green," "sustainable," "clean," "recyclable" and "organic," for example, without data to support such claims. Finally, though there has not yet been a U.S. federal carbon disclosure law enacted, the fashion industry may have international and state carbon disclosure related compliance obligations.

Holland & Knight's Fashion, Beauty and Luxury Goods and Emerging Contaminants and PFAS Teams are actively tracking federal and state actions impacting the fashion industry and related businesses. Please contact the authors of this alert if you have any questions.

Notes

¹ See Casten, Salazar Propose Bipartisan Bill to Bolster Sustainable Apparel Industry. This act was initially introduced on July 10, 2024, by Mr. Casten (as sponsor), with cosponsors Ms. Elvira Salazar and others. See also All Information (Except Text) for H.R.1239 - Voluntary Sustainable Apparel Labeling Act and H.R.8978 - Voluntary Sustainable Apparel Labeling Act.

² See SB-707 Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024.

³ See AB-405 Fashion Environmental Accountability Act of 2025.

⁴ See Senate Bill S4746B.

⁵ See HB 1107 - 2025-26.

⁶ See PFAS In Apparel Law.

⁷ See AB-1817 Product safety: textile articles: perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

⁸ See 131st Maine Legislature, Second Regular Session: An Act to Amend the Laws Relating to the Prevention of Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances Pollution.

Information contained in this alert is for the general education and knowledge of our readers. It is not designed to be, and should not be used as, the sole source of information when analyzing and resolving a legal problem, and it should not be substituted for legal advice, which relies on a specific factual analysis. Moreover, the laws of each jurisdiction are different and are constantly changing. This information is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship. If you have specific questions regarding a particular fact situation, we urge you to consult the authors of this publication, your Holland & Knight representative or other competent legal counsel.