Summary#
Bill 90, the Textile Waste Act, 2025, would amend Ontario’s Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, 2016. Its stated goal is to examine how textiles might be included in the Act’s producer-responsibility system; this bill does not itself designate textiles or require anyone to manage textile waste.
- Within three months after the bill comes into force, the Minister must start a review of how textiles could be added as a designated class of material.
- The Minister must consult clothing and household-textile companies or their trade representatives, textile-waste service providers, certain waste-reduction organizations, municipalities or their associations, and the Resource Productivity and Recovery Authority.
- In considering who should carry out responsibilities, the Minister must consider the desirability, where practicable, of assigning them to a Canadian-resident brand holder; if there is none, a Canadian-resident importer; or, if neither is resident in Canada, a Canadian-resident retailer.
- The Minister must report findings and an estimated possible timeline for designation within six months after starting the review. The Minister must give an update three months later and, if textiles still have not been designated six months after the first report, explain why and report every two months until they are designated.
What it means for you#
- Textile companies and waste-service providers: The bill requires the Minister to consult the named groups. It does not require businesses to apply, submit information, or take on new waste responsibilities.
- Municipalities and waste-reduction organizations: The Minister must consult the named municipal and non-governmental groups as part of the review. The bill does not give them a decision-making role.
- Brand holders, importers and retailers: The bill considers which of these parties might carry responsibilities if textiles are designated later. It does not impose those responsibilities now.
- Consumers and the general public: The bill does not directly change textile disposal rules, prices, taxes, or access to services.
- The supplied material does not include the parent Act, so I could not verify how its existing responsibilities work or whether it already defines “textiles.”
Money#
No cost information is in the available material.
- The Minister must conduct a review, consult, and provide reports, but the bill gives no estimate for staffing or other costs.
- The bill does not set a fee, fine, tax, or funding program.
What is unclear#
- The bill does not define “textiles” in the new section. The parent Act was not supplied, so it is unclear whether it defines the term elsewhere.
- The bill sets no deadline for designating textiles. It requires reports if designation has not happened, but does not require designation by a particular date.
- The bill does not set out how the review will gather information or decide what responsibilities to recommend.
- The bill does not say what duties would apply if textiles were designated, or how the possible responsibility rules would work in practice.
- The amendment does not explain how a future designation would be made; the supplied material does not include the parent Act to check that process.
Case for#
- A review could let the Minister consider how textile responsibilities might fit into Ontario’s existing resource-recovery law before setting any duties.
- Requiring consultation with businesses, waste-service providers, municipalities, and the Resource Productivity and Recovery Authority could bring practical perspectives into that review.
- The proposed responsibility rules offer a way to identify a Canadian-based party when the brand holder is not resident in Canada.
Case against#
- The bill requires a review and repeated reports, but does not require textiles to be designated or set a final deadline. The process could therefore continue without a change in who is responsible for textile waste.
- The bill does not say what future duties might cost businesses or what services they might have to provide, leaving the main practical effects unresolved.
- The bill does not set detailed rules for the review or explain how the Minister would choose among possible approaches.