The European Parliament recently adopted legislation aimed at reducing food and textile waste across its 27 member nations.
According to Recycling Today, the new rules will require textile producers to cover the costs of collection, sorting, and recycling through an extended producer responsibility framework — a policy mechanism that holds manufacturers responsible for the end-of-life management of their goods and materials. The standards will apply to products such as clothing, accessories, hats, footwear, blankets, bed linens, kitchen linens, and curtains.
The legislation also sets a 10% reduction target for food processing and manufacturing and a 30% reduction per capita on food services, restaurants, retail, and households.
Parliament has estimated that each person in the European Union generates around 130 kilogrammes (about 287 pounds) of food waste per year and 15 kilos (about 33 pounds) of clothing and footwear waste.
"Fast fashion" business models, which generate huge amounts of cheap, "throwaway" clothing, flood landfills, drive microplastics pollution, contaminate waterways, and generate heat-trapping pollution, while also typically relying on exploitative labor practices. Cheap clothing can also be an economic waste for consumers, as these trendy, poorly made garments are generally replaced more often. This appears to be one reason that the average consumer buys 60% more clothing than they did just 15 years ago, according to the United Nations.
Meanwhile, much of the textile waste from Europe and North America ends up in other countries, endangering those bearing no responsibility for this major source of pollution. Chile's Atacama Desert, for example, is home to a growing "mountain" of clothing sent there from other nations. The heaps of unwanted clothing are a growing environmental concern for locals — garments have caught fire in the past, impacting air quality in nearby communities.
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The textile industry is also responsible for around 6-8% of the carbon pollution poured into the atmosphere each year.
"Ultra fast-fashion creates mountains of textile waste," French lawmaker Laurent Castillo said following the law's adoption, according to Agence France-Presse, adding that this "endangers French and European firms as well as being extremely polluting."
Food waste is another major contributor of planet-warming pollution, resource waste, and food insecurity.
Though the legislation has targets to reduce food waste in the EU, AFP noted that the Parliament did not set a reduction target for the farm sector, which has some environmental organizations up in arms. As the World Wildlife Fund stated, "Losses that occur before, during and after harvesting or livestock rearing make up a considerable amount of food waste across the value chain."
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