France is part of a quartet of EU countries calling for legislation that would allow additional taxes to be imposed on clothing companies that use a cheap ‘fast fashion’ marketing strategy.
Austria, Finland, France and the Netherlands have called on their EU counterparts to back strict measures to ending the tendency to waste cheap and disposable clothingallowing governments to charge fees to companies whose marketing strategy promotes ‘fast fashion’ consumerism.
The MEPs set out their arguments in a discussion document, seen by ‘Euronews’, which has been distributed to national delegates ahead of the June 17 summit, at which environment ministers will have to adopt their position on the proposals to limit the textile waste and food through amendments to the Waste Framework Directive (DMR).
“While the amount of textile products consumed per capita in Europe has increased dramatically in recent years, the average wear of a garment has decreased” notes the joint statement. “Some studies even estimate that some consumers throw away their cheap clothes after seven or eight uses.
The statement cites estimates according to which The number of garments sold doubled to reach 100 billion annually between 2000 and 2015reflecting enormous resource consumption and a situation in which the industry is responsible for a fifth of global water pollution and 10% of greenhouse gas emissions, which will increase to more than a quarter by 2050 if current trends continue.
The countries ask that Europe “seize the opportunity” of the ongoing reform of community legislation on waste prevention and the Ecodesign Regulation adopted last month to “introduce into EU legislation concrete measures to combat the commercial practice of ultra-fast fashion“.
Although ecodesign laws Focus on making products more durable and repairable, France and its partners point out in their note that recent research suggests that only about a third of clothing is discarded due to wear and tear.
The four members of the EU call for specifically recognize the impact of fast fashion marketing strategies in expanded producer responsibility schemes aimed at making companies pay for the mess they cause, and propose a last-minute amendment to the proposed Waste Framework Directive.
“Member States may require producer responsibility organizations to use modulations of RAP rates based on the extrinsic durability of the productssuch as the number of textile references placed on the market and the frequency of renewal of textile collections, along with a threshold volume of products per collection”, they suggest.
Environmental activist Theresa Mörsen, policy manager at the Brussels-based NGO Zero Waste Europe, described the joint declaration and the upcoming vote of the EU Council as a “crucial moment” in the fight against discarded textiles and resource depletion.
“These nations are taking the initiative to address the core of the crisis: the enormous volume of textile products flooding the market,” Mörsen said. “We must defend the ‘polluter pays principle’ to move from focusing on mere waste management to holding producers responsible.”
Paris is currently drafting national legislation to curb the business practices of companies such as Shein and Temutwo Chinese-owned clothing retailers whose exponential growth means they have recently become subject to strict digital services rules that apply to online platforms with more than 45 million monthly users in the EU.
According to a bill passed with unusual unanimity by the lower house of the French Parliament in March, a fee based on the environmental footprint of up to 5 euros per item, rising to 10 euros in 2030, would be collected for each fast fashion item sold. . The bill also would prohibit the direct and indirect marketing of these productsincluding the use of influencers.
The European Parliament has already adopted a Tough stance on proposed revision of waste directive. Even if the Council reaches a common position this month, final negotiation of EU legislation is unlikely to begin before September.
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