The European Commission has called for fast fashion to become a thing of the past by 2030. The EU recently announced it will significantly increase its ecodesign product regulations, initially targeting textiles, with the potential for these regulations to apply to all categories of goods in the future.
Fast fashion quickly becomes obsolete: EU plans to include durability and recyclability in product regulations
As part of its plan to crack down on single-use consumption, the European Union is also requiring big companies to disclose how much unsold goods they send to landfill.
The EU's eco-design regulations, originally designed to set energy-saving standards for specific consumer products (such as toasters or washing machines), will also include durability and recyclability. For example, manufacturers may be required to use a certain percentage of recycled materials in their products or prohibit the use of difficult-to-recycle raw materials.
"The things we use every day must last," Frans Timmermans, the European Commission's vice president responsible for the European Green Deal, told reporters. "If a product breaks, it must be repairable. Smartphones shouldn't live up to their 'smart' label," he said, holding up his own phone and fretting about having to call a repair specialist when the battery wears out and he can't replace it himself. He added, "The same goes for clothes: they should last at least three times in the water and still be recyclable."
European Union Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius said the commission wanted fast fashion to become "obsolete very quickly," adding: "By 2030, textiles entering the EU market should be durable, recyclable and made from a high proportion of recycled fibres."
Sinkevich is optimistic that consumers who have been persuaded to constantly change their outfits will embrace a different mindset: “We won’t have to discard or replace clothes as often as we do now. Consumers will actually have better choices, more appealing options than fast fashion.”
Europeans waste an average of 11 kilograms of textiles per year
The EU has yet to finalize regulations for specific products, so the extent of the impact on the fashion industry remains unclear. Mattresses and carpets are generally expected to be among the first items to be regulated. A senior EU official stated, "The EU probably won't target socks first, but clothing or footwear is a very likely option."
The average European discards 11 kilograms of clothes, shoes and other textiles each year. Textiles are the fourth largest source of greenhouse gas emissions after food, housing and transport, and consume large amounts of water and raw materials.
Once these proposals are passed and take effect, the whole world will be affected because nearly three-quarters of clothing and home textiles consumed in the EU are imported from other places outside the EU.
The EU may eventually ban the sending of unsold goods to landfill altogether, but officials say this needs further study. Sinkevich said that if companies were obliged to disclose when they send unsold goods to landfill, they would think twice about damaging their reputation.
To reduce ecological footprint, the EU plans to ban greenwashing, planned obsolescence, etc.
These proposals are part of the EU's "circular economy" initiative, aimed at reducing Europe's global ecological footprint. The EU's circular economy initiative builds on and expands upon existing ecodesign regulations. The EU says these regulations saved consumers €120 billion in energy costs last year. The new regulations are expected to reduce energy demand even more significantly, with the reduction in primary energy consumption expected to be equivalent to the total amount of natural gas Europe imports from Russia by 2030.
The European Commission also plans to amend consumer regulations to ban greenwashing and planned obsolescence. Furthermore, businesses will not be allowed to use terms such as "environmentally friendly" or "environmentally friendly" to describe their products without providing relevant certification.
Companies must also inform consumers about product features that can shorten the useful life of a product. For example, certain software can cause smartphones and laptops to gradually become less functional or even completely unusable.
Nusa Urbancic, director of the Changing Markets Foundation, a non-governmental organization, said the fashion industry had been exempt from the polluter-pays principle for too long. "But that will all change with today's announcement by the EU," she said.
Source: Environmental Information Center (https://e-info.org.tw/node/233791)
