Next step: ban non-degradable synthetic textiles.
So they are going to be shipped abroad to get destroyed?
Nah, just pay a set of middlemen to handle them until they all mysteriously vanish.
You mean like how every time there’s a sports championship the losing team’s merch ends up in Africa somewhere?
Or “recycling” plastic waste sent overseas. Out of sight, out of mind. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/30/germany-largest-exporter-plastic-waste-2025
It’ll get more expensive so were just have to keep removing the incentive structures to destroy
Landfills?
I had a talk about my mayor about investing on incineration as both an energy source and a trash management. So they’d throw those clothes to be burned onto electricity next day
i donate usable clothing and cut up the rest as cleaning rags or strips for rugmaking. reduse, reuse, THEN recycle.
We need to stop these manufacturers from offering a clothing line to every single pop culture phenom because of “business”.
Um, but then how line go up?
LINE MUST GO UP!
this is almost suggesting “line go up at any cost” are bad? no, its the consumers that are wrong. money good.
LINE MUST GO UP!
That screenshot gives me a vibe of “this is just like the mall, gems surrounded by trash.”
Fast Fashion has always been a problem and I hope this will combat that.
here’s hoping governments will stop fast fashion at the source too!
clothing companies need to be forced to fairly pay their workers, have decent working hours & conditions for them, and planned obsolescence for clothing (via flimsy thin fabrics etc) needs to be regulated out of existence. 🤞
Last September I needed a new pair of jeans. I was in a mall and saw the Levi’s store. I remembered how long my Levi’s would last in the past and figured I should put the extra money for a good pair that will last. Prices where nowhere to be seen, I tought mabe 60-80$ since I knew they where expensive. Got to the cashier and total was 130$ for a single pair of jeans!
Worst is I barely wore them and they are already full of holes! WTF !
hopefully you weote to levi and complained? the sales/complaints ratio need levelling.
this makes me so sad, levis are my go to. comfy and well made…or they used to :(
My Levi’s split right down my leg after like 2 years of wearing them mostly just in the winter.
This isn’t that uplifting if you know just how much donations of used clothing harms developing countries and actually like the planet we all share.
That sounds like when Clinton was arguing that paying the workers in (Haiti?) better would ackshually hurt them because the businesses would flee to cheaper places…
Should we really maintain toxic systems because they have one positive benefit?
I would argue that sifting through piles of rubbish is not a positive benefit :/There’s several African countries that have straight banned shipments of clothing to them. Those shipments destroyed the booming local textile industries they had, and that they are trying to rebuild. Textile industries are the key and first step to bootstrap industrialization, as understood in Europe (see the start of it in England, and how the automation helped and fed back on itself).
If you think globalization is not a yoke, I don’t know what to tell you… The global rich north needs a poor south to exploit or the system isn’t profitable for them.
That’s interesting thank you for taking the time to explain.
The linked article is an inferior but true copy of https://environment.ec.europa.eu/news/new-eu-rules-stop-destruction-unsold-clothes-and-shoes-2026-02-09_en , an EU press release with the same headline and, as far as I can tell, true.
Sweden tried to something similar last year, they banned throwing out old clothes with the garbage, you had to hand it in to specific collection points.
In just a few weeks the system was broken and overloaded, they didn’t have the capacity to deal with the sudden influx of material.
Very big differences in these laws.
In Sweden they put the responsibility on the consumers. EU is putting the responsibility on the companies.
As you should.
Yes but they have a minimum payment requirement that fucks small business. So the eu will have plenty of big corporate slop and soon be cut off from real independent small businesses.
does the payment need to scale with size?
Germany did something similar. Since then most collection points closed, because they ha to sort through to much unusable clothing that for thrown in there.
What will they do then? Are they setting up sufficient recycling capability?
From 19 July 2026, luxury and other big brands will be required to either reuse, recycle, resell (at a discount) or donate their leftover stock.
And
This rule aims at curbing waste from textiles, as well as reducing the large amount of waste the fashion industry generates each year.
If they choose recycle, they would need to do it themselves. But most likely, they will donate.
No matter what, someone is getting something at a lesser price than retail.
Or, they produce less. Which is very, very good.
The smartest move would be an aggressive clearance strategy so they don’t have to move the unsold product a second time
Yes produce less, raise prices because there is “less supply”
Honestly I’d gladly pay more if the textile quality was better. You can’t fucking get good textiles anymore, and the whole art of knowing and understanding textiles is mostly lost on the average person. That includes me!
We’re all buying the cloth equivalent of those super cheap flimsy rubbish bin liners that tear down the seams as you try to insert them in the bin, but so many don’t even know better that we just accept it.
Agreed. Good textiles, I don’t believe they exist anymore. Like they just burned the factory down or something. When I was starting out in the trades, I’d buy all my pants from thrift stores. Grease, oil, general dirt, etc, not only did the old denim last longer than anything i bought new, it washed way better. My stained clothes would actually be like 80-90% stain free out of the wash. The new stuff after a day of work became permanent work pants they just never washed out.
Come to think of it, it is probably all the damn synthetic fiber the add now that binds tightly to the petroleum molecules. Unlike the fully natural stuff in the past that can actually release the stain.
If only the author included some sort of way to learn more, like an article or something.
Don’t be silly. Articles aren’t to be read! Just discussions of headlines
They will export it.
Isn’t this a general problem? What will be so special about clothing produced on July 16th?
That’s just when the law goes into effect, it’s not about when the clothes are produced.
“From” should be “starting”. Probably whoever wrote it is not a native English speaker.
from (prep.)
- […]
- […]
- Used to indicate a starting point or initial reference.
- Indicating a starting point in time.
“Tickets are available from 17th July.”
- Indicating a starting point in time.
