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EU bans the destruction of unsold apparel, clothing, accessories and footwear

environment.ec.europa.eu

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Re: EU bans the destruction of unsold apparel, clothing, accessories and footwear

#271

Post by JoshTriplett »

behringer wrote: post #269
babybjornborg wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparel firms exist not to clothe people as common sense would suggest but to make a profit, and this practice of erring on the side of overproduction is more profitable than under production. The perfect solution would be to produce exactly the number of goods they will sell, but forecasts aren't perfect so they overproduce. Firms are already incentivised by profit to not waste, so this adds another incentive and re…

If they ship unused crates to Africa then they get cheap clothes. Win win all around.

Not always a win. There have been a few reports that sending large numbers of clothing donations to areas that don't specifically need them has the result of harming local industry that would otherwise be able to produce and sell clothes.

Re: EU bans the destruction of unsold apparel, clothing, accessories and footwear

#272

Post by cosmic_cheese »

motbus3 wrote: post #204

I'm reading the comments and I get confused. I kinda think this is a good idea and it is not like the government is purely making it a 3rd party problem only. This might make production more complicated for a while, but nowadays it is much easier to predict demand and produce quicker in smaller batches. In the 90s you might need change a whole factory setting for every single piece of fabric but nowadays it is that m…

> Here, we don't have winter, fall or anything anymore.

In my inland US east coast hometown there’s been a big shift in winters. It used to be that it consistently got quite cold after late September to mid October, winters consistently came with several feet of snow, and spring hadn’t fully arrived until well into April. For the past several years winter has almost disappeared — many years there’s almost no snow and it sometimes doesn’t even get that cold. It’s kind of an indistinct smudge in between fall and spring.

Things have changed where I live now on the northern half of the west coast too, though I wasn’t here to witness the change. Most houses weren’t equipped with AC when they were built because it was rarely needed. Now it’s a must for between good third and half of the summer depending on exactly where you’re at.

Serious change is afoot, that much is undeniable.

Re: EU bans the destruction of unsold apparel, clothing, accessories and footwear

#273

Post by awongh »

ragall wrote: post #259
awongh wrote: post #206

Compared to the USA, is a contributing factor because things can't be put on discount sale in the EU? In american many things are always on a discount, and there are so many channels through which this discounted merchandise is funneled. Which has to be a major way retails manage excess stock. A lot of people don't realize that european retailers are legally disallowed from selling at a discount. Edit to clarify: thi…

> Compared to the USA, is a contributing factor because things can't be put on discount sale in the EU? Nonsense. They can. > In american many things are always on a discount, and there are so many channels through which this discounted merchandise is funneled. Which has to be a major way retails manage excess stock. Major fashion brands refuse to do any discount at all to avoid damaging the brand. No second hand, no…

> Nonsense. They can.

Specifically I meant that there's a few times during the year when things can be put on discount?

Re: EU bans the destruction of unsold apparel, clothing, accessories and footwear

#274

Post by geooff_ »

anymouse123456 wrote: post #189

It’s shocking to see this legislated. As if companies are just out here wantonly destroying otherwise valuable goods that could have been easily sold at a profit instead. I guarantee this problem is far more complex and troublesome than the bureaucrats would ever understand, much less believe, yet they have no problem piling on yet another needless regulatory burden.

It's about preserving brand image. Destroying a product is favourable compared to selling it at a discount and making the brand you spent so much marketing appear "cheap".

Re: EU bans the destruction of unsold apparel, clothing, accessories and footwear

#275

Post by smt88 »

saubeidl wrote: post #49
smt88 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What developing country do you think has a clothing shortage?

What about the poor in their own countries that might not be able to afford clothes?

Any name brand would rather send their unsold clothes to a landfill in India rather than allow their wealthy customers to see poor people wearing the clothes.

Re: EU bans the destruction of unsold apparel, clothing, accessories and footwear

#276

Post by pc86 »

pfp wrote: post #73
pc86 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not particularly big into fashion (I think my newest clothes are 4-5 years old), but why is the thing you want "common [expletive] sense" and someone choosing to spend their money a different way, by extension, nonsensical?

Ah yes, the classic HN hair splitting meta-argument. No.

I'm not sure you know what hairsplitting means, but I am sure "No." is an answer to some question, just not the completely reasonable one I asked.

Re: EU bans the destruction of unsold apparel, clothing, accessories and footwear

#277

Post by [deleted] »

ericmcer wrote: post #218
motbus3 wrote: post #204

I'm reading the comments and I get confused. I kinda think this is a good idea and it is not like the government is purely making it a 3rd party problem only. This might make production more complicated for a while, but nowadays it is much easier to predict demand and produce quicker in smaller batches. In the 90s you might need change a whole factory setting for every single piece of fabric but nowadays it is that m…

It would not be a good idea because the goal of companies are not to get you to consume only what you need, they want you to consume more. You should check out "Ascension" (it is on Paramount unfortunately). It gives a pretty close up look at China and factory culture and how their entire country is mobilized to push maximum consumption. The corporation's don't view Americans high per-capita consumption as a problem…

[deleted]

Re: EU bans the destruction of unsold apparel, clothing, accessories and footwear

#278

Post by im3w1l »

jadenPete wrote: post #252

I think what bugs me about EU legislation like this is how micro-targeted it is. Why apparel specifically? If waste and a disregard for the finite-ness of natural resources is the problem, why not impose a blanket, Pigovian-style tax on all extracted resources? I got the same feeling when they mandated USB-C on Apple devices. If the problem of waste were tackled categorically, then the state wouldn’t need to get invo…

I dont really care about waste too much as I think it's a non-issue blown out of proportion, but mandating standards and interoperability creates a lot of value for consumers and prevents anticompetive behavior.

Re: EU bans the destruction of unsold apparel, clothing, accessories and footwear

#279

Post by smt88 »

kube-system wrote: post #94
smt88 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Poor countries don't need clothes. They have clothes. It's just more (mostly plastic pollution) that fills their landfills and rivers. https://atmos.earth/art-and-culture/the-messy-truth/

Just because a country has clothing in it doesn’t mean all of the people in that country have clothing. There are people in rich countries that need clothes. Clothing wears out, it’s a perpetual need and perpetually disposed.

What country has a clothing shortage? Be specific.

The most desperate povert I've ever seen was in India. You know what people were using to make tents to live in? Clothes.

Poor people have been making clothes for thousands of years without any help from heavy industry, and it's incredibly cheap to produce long-lasting cotton clothing.

Clothing isn't really a perpetual need the way you frame it. A single garment can last decades if it's synthetic or allowed to fully dry between uses.

Re: EU bans the destruction of unsold apparel, clothing, accessories and footwear

#280

Post by dlcarrier »

Aurornis wrote: post #113
dlcarrier wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I buy mostly from liquidators, where everything is sold as-is, but that doesn't stop end users from trying to make a claim, so many manufacturers often have methods for marking items that are not covered by the warranty. For example, Ryobi brands the items with a plastic welder, leaving a tell-tale wavy mark. A robust liquidation market does a lot to prevent waste, and it reduces the cost of living for those who part…

> so many manufacturers often have methods for marking items that are not covered by the warranty With textiles this is usually a hole punch or something with the tag. With hardware we had the serial number recorded. But consumers don’t care. If they buy something from a vendor they think is selling them something as new and the vendor tells them to go the manufacturer, the customer doesn’t care that you marked it as…

Resellers fraudulently claiming a liquidated item is new, or that they are an authorized distributor allowing for the product to be warranted, is its own problem. It's usually not a large enough fraud that it's worth it for law-enforcement to follow up on, but generally online marketplaces, like eBay, have their own enforcement practices to keep traffic away from fraudulent sellers.

On the author hand, Amazon has made it difficult to avoid fraudulent sellers, but they also don'e even sort items by price when that option is selected, so I avoid buying through their site.

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