Part 2 of 5: What matters most for Europe’s circular economy in 2026
In Part 1, I said 2026 is the year Europe’s textile circular economy gets real.
Not as a single law or deadline — but as a system tightening around product design, marketing claims, end-of-life responsibility, and cross-border controls.
This post is about the quiet infrastructure move that makes everything else work:
The product data spine.
Circularity doesn’t scale without structured product data
Every take-back bin, resale platform, EPR scheme, and recycling facility has one thing in common: they rely on accurate, usable product-level data.
In 2026, these shift from compliance afterthoughts to core enablers.
Because without structured product data:
What is a “product data spine”?
It’s the consistent set of attributes that link each SKU to its:
That’s your spine.
Everything else — from fees to resale eligibility to end-of-life routing — connects to it.
Why this matters in 2026
Europe’s national schemes will begin to diverge in how they calculate EPR fees — some by weight, others by material class, some with bonus/malus based on design.
The only way to keep cost control (and credibility) is with a data spine that makes:
If you don’t build this now, you’ll be chasing retroactive fixes in 2027–2029 — when the real cost kicks in.
Want to unlock fee reductions or reuse bonuses?
You’ll need to prove design features like:
That data can’t live in PDFs or across 12 supplier spreadsheets.
It needs to link to SKUs and be structured enough to move through systems.
The marketing environment is tightening — and “circular” claims are under objective scrutiny.
Whether you’re making a resale, repair, or recycling claim, the questions will come:
Without the data spine, these questions are hard to answer — let alone verify.
What to do now: 3 steps to build your data spine
Step 1: Define your minimum viable attributes
Start small but standard. Decide what your system needs at a minimum:
Build this into your product master data model — not a separate ESG tracker.
Step 2: Map ownership across teams
Who enters what, and when?
Without clarity on ownership, spines break down before they connect.
Step 3: Make it usable downstream
This is where many brands fall short.
You don’t just want a database. You want a data spine that powers systems:
If the data doesn’t move, the system doesn’t work.
Remember: Data is the compliance currency of circularity.
Product-level data will become the way brands:
This is infrastructure. And 2026 is the time to build it — before enforcement catches up.
Coming next: Part 3 — Take-back customers actually use
We’ll go deeper into the customer side of circularity: how to make take-back so easy, clear, and credible that participation rises and contamination drops.
Circularity, Made Simple.