The EU Parliament has voted. This is how they want to end fast fashion and excessive consumerism

The European Parliament voted on Thursday (June 1, 2023) for regulations enabling the effective fight against the overproduction of textiles and clothes and excessive consumerism. The idea of ​​curbing the so-called fast fashion gained the approval of all political groups: 600 people voted “for” the solution, only 17 voted “against”.

The idea of ​​fast fashion, ie mass production of clothes sold at low prices and in large quantities, is eagerly promoted by chain stores. Its business model is based on duplicating trends from the fashion catwalks and delivering them to consumers in a short time, cheaply and usually made of inferior quality materials. Fast clothes are often produced outside Europe, in countries with cheaper labor and sewn in poor conditions.

This is the 10th anniversary of the collapse of the building Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, where many clothing factories were located, also fulfilling orders from Western brands. 1,134 people died then. “These were mainly women, textile industry workers, who had been protesting against the tragic working conditions a few hours earlier,” said the head of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, beginning the plenary session in Brussels. “It was a signal to the West that it was time to reduce and sustain textiles,” she added.

15 kg of clothes and shoes a year

Because, according to the European Parliamentary Research Service, Over the past decades, the amount of clothes bought by EU residents has increased by 40%. According to statistics, in 2020, EU residents bought 6.6 million tonnes of clothes and shoes, which is 14.8 kg per head, spending an average of 820 euros on everything. Let us add that these data partly concern the period of the pandemic, when the income of the textile industry decreased by as much as 9 percent, so today the number of clothes purchased by Europeans has probably increased. The popularity of fast fashion is fueled by the fall in clothing prices and the already mentioned incredible pace with which fashion began to get from the catwalks to the hands of customers.

– Zara launches an average of 24 new collections a year, H&M from 12 to 16 – note the authors of the report. Research shows that half of the clothes lying in the wardrobes of Europeans have not been worn in the last year, and 30 percent. of the clothes produced have never been sold. More than half of old collections or worn clothes are not reused or recycled, but end up in landfills or incinerators.

Over 1.3 million tons of used clothes are exported to countries in Africa and Asia. Many of them, however, are in such poor condition that they are not suitable for sale, so they end up in landfills – giant dumps of clothes have been recorded, among others in in Ghana and Chile. As for incinerators, brands often prefer to destroy unsold collections rather than sell them for a lower price. This practice is particularly common among luxury brands; generally it is estimated that manufacturers burn billions of euros of textiles every year.

Experts warn that today only 1 percent. of used clothing is recycled into new clothing, this is because the technology to recycle clothing into virgin fibers is still in its infancy.

Fashion for years

Parliament is going to change that. EU politicians want clothes to be designed with the circular economy in mind from the very beginning. In practice, this means that they must be more durable to withstand many life cycles, contain recyclable materials, and preferably use timeless styles and designs, so they will not become outdated so quickly. New clothes – similar to EU rules on electronics and white goods – should be stronger, last longer, be easy to repair, reuse or recycle.

Zippers, fasteners and other sewing elements should be easy to detach, and the number of seams must be reduced to facilitate recycling, parliamentary experts list.

German MEP Delara Burkhardt (S&D), who is rapporteur on the subject in the EP, believes that the introduction of top-down regulations is necessary to end fast fashion.

“Consumers alone will not be able to reform the global textile sector alone. If we allow the market to self-regulate, we will leave the door open for fast fashion, says DW Burkhardt.

The European Parliament is also in favor of producers offering consumers maintenance or repair services; some companies already offer customers long-term warranties that include free product repair or replacement, or repair instructions. The EP also wants to improve the conditions for the production of materials, shoes and clothes intended for the EU market so as to prevent the tragedy that took place in Rana Plaza from happening again.

Stop burning

But it is not everything. EU politicians want it too prohibit companies from incinerating unsold or returned goods. The new rules would oblige companies to make public information about their intention to destroy products, and the European Commission will have the power to ban this type of practice immediately. Pseudo-ecological advertising of clothes (so-called greenwashing) is also to be banned, when, for example, producers refer to untested certificates or promote clothing that is not ecological as such.

The European Commission presented the EU Strategy for Sustainable Textiles in a Circular Economy in March last year. The goal is for clothes on the EU market to be more durable and recyclable, with a high proportion of recycled fibres, free from hazardous substances and produced in an environmentally friendly way, while respecting social rights, by 2030 . – Fast fashion should go out of fashion – say EU politicians.