European governments are pushing for action against throwaway fashion, paving the way for a tax aimed at companies whose business model, and marketing strategy, is based on low prices and high volumes of business.
EU environment ministers have agreed that countries can impose levies on high-turnover, money-losing clothing retailers, depending on the extent to which their business practices encourage excessive consumption and generate more waste.
The measures, agreed at an EU Council summit on Monday June 17, would form part of a review of EU rules on waste prevention and management aimed specifically at the textile and food industries through the application of the “polluter pays” principlemaking extended producer responsibility (EPR) systems mandatory.
This would mean that companies would pay a proportional contribution to the costs of collecting, sorting, transporting and treating clothing and footwear waste. The rate would be modulated based on factors such as durability and the environmental impact of production.
But ministers want to go further when it comes to disposable fashion, adding to the directive an explicit recognition that most clothing is discarded now before it is spent. They implicitly blame aggressive marketing strategies for this growing trend.
The measures have set off alarms in the textile sector
The national authorities should have the power to “modulate financial contributions of producers based on the practices that lead to this excessive generation of textile waste, in particular in relation to industrial and commercial strategies”, they agreed in a negotiating mandate with the European Parliament.
Measures to address the growing environmental impact of disposable fashion have set off alarm bells in the textile sector, especially in companies whose business model is based on a huge and rapid turnover of garments cheaply produced that are sold through websites and applications.
One of these companies, Shein, has already found itself in the legislative line of fire with a French proposal for a tax on fast fashion starting at five euros per article, although it is now frozen pending the early elections.
Shein, a Chinese company based in Singapore, experienced meteoric growth during the pandemic and has recently been subject to strict European regulations reserved for “large online platforms”, claims that its a la carte model minimizes overproduction and benefits consumers with limited resources.
Experts say it is an opportunity “to go further”
Valérie Boiten, from the NGO Ellen MacArthur Foundation, considers that the tightening of regulations is “an opportunity to go beyond the traditional approach of collection and recycling” and also focus on the design, repair and reuse of products for move away from the current model.
In a report on the impact of ‘fast fashion’, the foundation pointed out that More than 80% of discarded textiles are incineratedare deposited in landfills or end up polluting the environment, and that separate collection and recirculation cannot be economically viable without a fee-based EPR system.
Ultimately, we have to abandon the current model, which mainly extracts non-renewable resources to put new items on the market,” Boiten told Euronews. “EPR can help achieve this, although It is not the only solution necessary”.
Theresa Mörsen of the Zero Waste Europe group praised the Member States who “had the good sense to openly express his intentions to end fast fashion” while negotiating the reform.
The stricter rules on disposable fashion reflect a joint proposal put forward earlier this month by Austria, Finland, France and the Netherlands. The legislation is subject to further amendments in negotiations with the European Parliament, which approved its negotiating mandate in February.
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