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EU ban on destruction of unsold clothes and shoes enters into application

environment.ec.europa.eu

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Re: EU ban on destruction of unsold clothes and shoes enters into application

#81

Post by jandrewrogers »

josephcsible wrote: post #54
nieksand wrote: post #36

It seems like this policy would lead to shortages in less common sizes of clothing.

How do you figure?

Currently, unpopular sizes are over-produced because they are subsidized by popular sizes. If the unpopular sizes have to be paid for, the logistics and production processes would push producers to under-produce popular sizes.

A key insight is that what constitutes an "unpopular size" is a very local phenomenon. Every point of retail sells a different, semi-predictable distribution of sizes. It is much cheaper to ship sizes no one will buy than to manage the logistics of exactly matching local demand for a specific distribution of sizes.

I asked the same question to someone who works in this business and got an eye-opening detailed explanation that made it obvious in hindsight why things the work the way the do. The difference in product cost and logistics infrastructure was not small.

Re: EU ban on destruction of unsold clothes and shoes enters into application

#83

Post by binaryturtle »

watermelon0 wrote: post #75
toast0 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your minimum run is 1000 of a size, and you can only really sell 500 because it's an uncommon size, and you would prefer to sell at full price or not at all, seems like making that size no longer fits your plans.

Wouldn't it be cheaper to only produce 500 items, instead of producing 1k, and throwing half of it away?

Many years ago I worked in the printing industry. F.ex. a client wants 100 products of something (e.g. posters or flyers), usually it was more cost effective to produce a 1000 (or more) and then throw away 900 the client didn't need. Obviously a huge waste of material.

Re: EU ban on destruction of unsold clothes and shoes enters into application

#84

Post by tialaramex »

pcdevils wrote: post #15
xnx wrote: post #8

Is this a problem in the EU? I often think in terms of home remodels that a family might do at least once. Those can easily fill a dumpster with tons of garbage. That's much more waste than a family could ever generate directly or indirectly in clothing.

It's companies dumping unsold ranges of clothes as new ranges come in. Not people.

Ya, and this is hugely driven by "Fast Fashion". If you're a company which made raincoats since the 1880s and the style with more buttons and few zips starts to be less popular maybe you make fewer of those and more of the zip ones next season, and in five years you've gone from 90% button 10% zip to the reverse. Companies like that don't destroy a lot of stock. They do a few discount sales, end-of-line price slashes, that sort of thing, but this "destroy clothes to make money" wasn't a thing.

In fast fashion you're shipping a knock-off of the $8000 designer swimsuit seen in a Paris catwalk show at the start of July, a preview of your $150 version was shown in a TikTok video that blew up on Friday and your customers will be wearing them on the beach next weekend. By August that product is old news, you do not want that $150 product available for $5 in a discount store or your consumers might rebel - so you want to burn it instead and the EU says no, that's a perfectly good swimsuit, sell it to somebody who needs a swimsuit. Or give it away.

If "fast fashion" no longer makes economic sense now, too bad, I guess you won't do it any more. The EU's citizens do not want you to destroy the planet they live on just to get more money. We made money up. Stop being crazy.

Re: EU ban on destruction of unsold clothes and shoes enters into application

#85

Post by s1artibartfast »

UltraSane wrote: post #69
charlieyu1 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Makes it more expensive for everyone and also decentivize donating food to homeless or anyone in need.

how does NOT destroying edible food make food more expensive?

They have to deal with less sales and or storing excess inventory.

Let's say you have some bruised bananas. You either have to keep them on the shelf till they rot (less space for sellable product) or donate them and then people won't buy as many bananas, so you need to raise the price.

Re: EU ban on destruction of unsold clothes and shoes enters into application

#88

Post by josephcsible »

toast0 wrote: post #65
josephcsible wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you figure?

If your minimum run is 1000 of a size, and you can only really sell 500 because it's an uncommon size, and you would prefer to sell at full price or not at all, seems like making that size no longer fits your plans.

But clothes aren't perishable, so why would you only be able to sell 500, rather than it just taking twice as long to sell all 1000?

Re: EU ban on destruction of unsold clothes and shoes enters into application

#89

Post by OKRainbowKid »

thesmtsolver2 wrote: post #39
wolvoleo wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That can be penalised too. We really have to get away from the idea that curtailing intentional industrial waste production is futile. Perhaps in American style capitalism it is because the system is rigged and the biggest money bag always wins. But we don't want this here at all. We have to get forward as humanity and treat our planet with respect. Otherwise we won't have one worth living on. Making money isn't the…

Wasn’t it the US that caught European companies in the emissions scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_emissions_scandal

Ok, what's your point?

Re: EU ban on destruction of unsold clothes and shoes enters into application

#90

Post by tacomagick »

okr wrote: post #86

So i buy from my own money fabrics, machines and also i pay handy people to make clothes out of it. I can not sell them all. My Risk. And as an additional punishment i lose the right to do whatever i want with my own property? Mad world.

So I buy my own factory and produce my own pollutants and I dont have the right to do whatever I want with them, mad world.
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