California SB 707 Textile EPR: Producers, Deadlines, Penalties

California’s Senate Bill 707, the Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024, is the first statewide extended producer responsibility law for clothing and textiles in the United States, and if you manufacture, brand, import, or sell covered apparel or household textiles into California, you have to join the state-approved producer responsibility organization and help fund a collection, repair, reuse, and recycling program. CalRecycle approved Landbell USA as the program’s PRO on February 27, 2026, and producers must register with it by July 1, 2026. Missing the requirements can cost up to $10,000 per day, or up to $50,000 per day for knowing violations.¹

Who Has to Register

The law walks down the supply chain to find a responsible party. The first stop is the company that manufactures a covered product and owns the brand or trademark. If the manufacturer is not the brand owner, the trademark licensee is on the hook. If neither exists domestically, the importer of record picks up the obligation. If none of those apply, the in-state distributor, retailer, or wholesaler becomes the producer.¹

The cascade is written to close gaps for goods manufactured overseas and shipped directly to California consumers, which is common in fast fashion. The statute specifically addresses those direct-to-consumer transactions.²

The Small Business Threshold

Companies with less than $1 million in annual aggregate global turnover are not “producers” under the law. That threshold adjusts each year with the California Consumer Price Index. The calculation aggregates revenue across affiliated entities, so a small subsidiary of a larger parent cannot use it to slip under the line.¹

Online Marketplaces

The act includes specific provisions for online marketplaces, reflecting that a large share of textile products reaches California consumers through third-party platforms rather than traditional retail.²

Who Is Not a Producer

Thrift stores and other secondhand shops that resell used clothing are not producers under the statute. The obligation stays with the company that originally manufactured, branded, or imported the item.¹

What Products Are Covered

The list of covered items is broad. On the apparel side, it includes shirts, pants, dresses, skirts, jackets, coats, leggings, swimwear, athletic wear, school and work uniforms, costumes, and formal wear. It also reaches footwear, handbags, backpacks, and knitted and woven accessories.¹

Household textiles are covered too: blankets, curtains, fabric window coverings, towels, bedding, tablecloths, napkins, linens, pillows, and tapestries.

What Is Excluded

Several categories sit outside the program:

Personal protective equipment, including workplace safety gear and military clothing.
Single-use products such as paper towels, paper napkins, toilet paper, facial tissue, and wet or dry wipes.
Products already regulated under other California extended producer responsibility laws, including mattresses, carpets, and electronics.
Window coverings operated by electric motors, cords, or automated systems.
Reusable products designed to absorb urine, feces, or menstruation that are regulated by the FDA.

The Compliance Calendar

The rollout is phased. The dates that matter to producers:

January 1, 2026: deadline for any proposed PRO to apply to CalRecycle.³
February 27, 2026: CalRecycle approved Landbell USA as the PRO.⁴
July 1, 2026: all producers of covered products sold in California must join Landbell USA and register their brands and products.⁴
Within 12 months after CalRecycle’s regulations take effect: the PRO must submit its stewardship plan for approval.
July 1, 2030, or earlier if the stewardship plan is approved sooner: full compliance begins and producers face enforcement actions for noncompliance.¹

The gap between the 2026 registration date and the 2030 enforcement backstop is meant to give the PRO time to build collection infrastructure and consumer outreach. The enforcement clock can start earlier, though, if CalRecycle approves the stewardship plan before that outside date.

What Producers Will Pay

The program is funded entirely by producers, not by taxpayers. Landbell USA will charge each producer a per-unit eco-modulated fee tied to California sales volumes. Products that are more durable, easier to recycle, or made from lower-impact materials cost less. Products made from hard-to-recycle blended fabrics or that contain hazardous chemicals cost more. The fee structure is designed to push design choices toward repairability, reuse, and recyclability.¹

If a producer already runs its own collection, repair, or recycling program, the formula can credit that contribution. Actual fee amounts are not yet public because the stewardship plan, which will define the formula, has not been finalized. Producer assessments have to cover operations, administration, capital investments, education, CalRecycle’s regulatory oversight costs, and a reserve fund equal to at least six months of program operations.

What the Program Will Do With the Products

The act follows California’s waste hierarchy: reuse and repair before recycling, recycling before disposal. The stewardship plan has to explain how collected products will be repaired and put back into consumers’ hands before anything is sent to a recycler.¹

“Repair” is defined broadly and covers mending rips and holes, removing stains and pilling, reattaching buttons and fasteners, dyeing or redyeing fabric, redesigning and repurposing garments, and preparing items for resale. “Reuse” means reselling a collected item to a consumer for its original purpose, with or without repair. The plan must include incentive payments, grants, and investments that push activity toward reuse over recycling. The PRO may exclude from repair and reuse any children’s products with detachable choking hazards or items containing materials regulated under federal safety rules for lead or other hazardous substances.

Collection Access

The PRO has to make drop-off free and convenient in every county. In most counties, that means at least 10 permanent collection sites, or one site per 25,000 residents, whichever is greater. Smaller counties have scaled requirements, ranging from three sites in counties with 18,000 or fewer residents up through eight sites in counties with populations between 50,001 and 100,000. Temporary events and mail-back options can supplement the permanent network.¹

Penalties

CalRecycle can impose administrative civil penalties on anyone who violates the act. The structure has two tiers:¹

Up to $10,000 per day for general violations.
Up to $50,000 per day for intentional or knowing violations.

The gap between the tiers matters. A producer that misses a registration deadline is in a different position than one that keeps selling covered products in California while refusing to join the PRO.

CalRecycle’s Role

CalRecycle, the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, is the regulator. It reviewed and approved the PRO application, will approve the stewardship plan, will publish performance standards the PRO must meet, and enforces compliance. Its regulatory costs are paid by producer assessments through the program budget rather than by state general funds. Application materials and program updates are posted on the agency’s textile stewardship page.⁵

For producers, though, the day-to-day contact point is Landbell USA. Registration by July 1, 2026 is the immediate action item; the stewardship plan and fee schedule will follow from there.

1
California Legislative Information. SB-707 Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024
2
California Legislative Information. California Public Resources Code 42984.05
3
CalRecycle. Textile PRO Application
4
CalRecycle. Textile PRO Approved by CalRecycle
5
CalRecycle. Textile Stewardship