New EU Rules To Stop the Destruction of Unsold Clothes and Shoes (europa.eu)
- Reference: 0180803542
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/02/16/166220/new-eu-rules-to-stop-the-destruction-of-unsold-clothes-and-shoes
- Source link: https://environment.ec.europa.eu/news/new-eu-rules-stop-destruction-unsold-clothes-and-shoes-2026-02-09_en
> The rules will help cut waste, reduce environmental damage and create a level playing field for companies embracing sustainable business models, allowing them to reap the benefits of a more circular economy. Every year in Europe, an estimated 4-9% of unsold textiles are destroyed before ever being worn. This waste generates around 5.6 million tons of CO2 emissions -- almost equal to Sweden's total net emissions in 2021. To help reduce this wasteful practice, the ESPR requires companies to disclose information on the unsold consumer products they discard as waste. It also introduces a ban on the destruction of unsold apparel, clothing accessories and footwear.
[1] https://environment.ec.europa.eu/news/new-eu-rules-stop-destruction-unsold-clothes-and-shoes-2026-02-09_en
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Propaganda is telling you that your shitty situation is the fault of immigrants. If they all disappeared tomorrow, how would your life have improved?
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Better chance of finding jobs (less preferential hiring, due to EEO, of underqualified people), fewer unknowledgeable drivers causing accidents with absolutely no repercussions, fewer 'new arrivals' being given cars, underpriced housing, tax-free everything, all the benefits (General Assistance, SNAP for family of six when five of those kids are actually their friend's kids, insurance), less of the immigrants taking over whole sections of town to become 'their community'.
Why is this on Slashdot? (Score:3)
I'm failing to find a tech nexus to this story.
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What if they apply the same rules to other products, such as silicon wafers? Or automobiles? Or currency? Can you imagine the EU bank websites having to have multiple pages of 'how to identify legal but misprinted Euro currency'?
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There is misprinted currency, it often commands a higher than face value once someone identifies the misprint.
Silicon wafers are either non functional (so its waste, not discarding a working product) or most partially functional chips are sold as lower spec products (eg faulty cores disabled, lower clockrate etc).
Something like an automobile consists of many thousands of discrete parts, so the individual faulty parts get replaced until you have a functional vehicle again.
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The CO2-link is right there in the summary. Another thing is: with AI and robots taking jobs, 'They' tell us there is no money for UBI, or UBI will cause inflation yet here we see finished products being trashed that could be handed over as a kind of UBI or at least needs based assistance.
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Textiles are technology. It is one of the most impactful and advanced technology we have. You think of it is as industry in large part because of how long we have been doing it. Also, most of the textile engineers are female, and I am betting you are not.
Carbon Fabric is the exact same thing as dense carbon fiber, just without a ton of resin to make it hard. Kevlar, Tencel, Phase Change Materials, Wearables, are all advanced technology. Not to mention new printing processes and treatments for fabrics.
private property rights? (Score:1)
So this is private property and it was created with private money, jobs were paid for, taxes were paid, these THINGS belong to the people (company) who created it. None of it is government's business how they want to use it but now government says: these things you own, you cannot destroy it, you must keep it? For how long do these things need to be stored and where, who is going to be paying to store it?
It is the same thing is the government came to your house and said: you cannot throw away this garbage
What do they want them to do instead? (Score:2)
What do they want them to do instead? I assume give it away or something but it's just going to get dumped.
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A lot of luxury brands destroy perfectly good clothing that has minor defects.
They get their logo wrong? Destroyed. Color off? Destroyed.
They care more about their image than the waste.
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this isn't even that, it is really unsold, QA approved clothes (not saying good quality because that will widely depend of each brand)
say a XXL dress wasn't sold, they will not keep it in stock for ever, it waste space, require accounting and DB sku, all that have a cost that may be in the end higher than the product itself... So right now they destroy it to clean up.
What they must do now is either drop the price a lot, pass it to another company (that will again sell if a much lower price, even if it may r
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Yes, give it away; there are plenty of needy people in the world. Or else stop over-producing clothing and footwear in the first place.
Textile Mountain (Score:3)
All this does is contribute to Textile Mountain
[1]https://www.textilemountainfil... [textilemountainfilm.com]
The best option would be to not overproduce at all, but that makes people unemployed so...
[1] https://www.textilemountainfilm.com/
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Not really, if the economics change such that producers have to pay for specialist garment processing, like we have to pay for WEEE waste, it may reach a point where companies reduce their production runs to better meet demand, or keep selling an item for longer until sold through.
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They destroy them to prevent discounted, new clothing reaching the market. They would be forced to discount to clear it and make way for new stuff, if it wasn't destroyed.
They will be looking for ways to keep it out of the hands of European consumers. Maybe ship it to somewhere else, but the risk is that it becomes less exclusive when people in poorer countries are wearing it. There is also a risk that people there buy it and sell it back to Europeans over the internet.
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In some cases they could also remove the branding, and sell it as cheap unbranded goods somewhere.
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After this, you will have to engage the services of a bespoke tailor to obtain a suit of clothing. Poors that cannot afford to do so will have to purchase theirs from the rag merchants on the street.