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

environment.ec.europa.eu

471–480 of 894 posts

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

#471

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about cases where 2 pieces of clothing when bundled together have value due to making it more efficient for people to find the right size, but over the right size is found the other becomes waste? A company can't prevent a consumer from ruining the wasted clothes.

How low is your population density, that there is no other person, who might have this size? > A company can't prevent a consumer from ruining the wasted clothes. When a consumer ruins clothing during try on he needs to buy it. I have always expected that rule to be the same everywhere.

I personally I don't want to wear clothes that some unclean person or weirdo tried on before. I get value in being the only person who wore it.

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

#472

Their plan for what to do instead is an indifferent shrug: "Instead of discarding stock, companies are encouraged to manage their stock more effectively, handle returns, and explore alternatives such as resale, remanufacturing, donations, or reuse."

Laissez faire. They’re making businesses absorb the externalities, as they should.

> They’re making businesses absorb the externalities, as they should.

That just means the business will raise prices.

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

#473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Overproduction is not an issue. The issue is that they damage unsold things instead selling them for a market price dictated by supply and demand. This is not only clothing and apparel, also sporting goods and many other items. This should be forbidden across all industries. Unsold stock should be delivered to non-profits at no cost for further distribution. If you can't prove that you either sold or transfer to non-…

And suddenly the EU becomes #1 in private non-profits, the first ever non-profits to turn up revenue and reinvest them into stock from Gap and H&M. Also the first non-profit to build gigalandfills in Africa.

Obviously there would be some rules for non-profits eligible for those donations.

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

#474
post #219

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…

Essentially: unsold clothing is worth less than zero and recycling most clothing creates more emissions than it saves. So the law is forcing headache for nothing.

Also: this will lead to it being harder to find clothing in your size in the EU (since each size is a new sku and must be inventory managed per the law)

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

#476
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get he economics, but I don’t think it follows that it’s a problem governments need to involve themselves in.

What’s your big idea

Do nothing here, because it’s probably not a real problem. There’s opportunity cost in spending time on nonsense.

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

#477
post #244
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get he economics, but I don’t think it follows that it’s a problem governments need to involve themselves in.

You might not think that, but EU citizens think otherwise.

Did they vote for the bureaucrats in Brussels that wrote the regulation?

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

#478
post #460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both of those situations sound like a net win.

Isn't it a thing that poor countries can't get their own textile and clothing companies going because of donations or cheap used clothes? I'm fairly certain that's a thing.

There seems to be 3-4 other issues colluding with that. If customers prefer or can't afford new domestic clothes, then it would make it hard for a business to succeed.

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

#479

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So they’ll donate it to someone who will then destroy it.

As the recipient of that donation, why would I actually destroy it when I can sell it?

Selling clothes is hard and annoying and most people can't be bothered. I've had to dispose of a number of clothes, and not once have I sold them; I think a slight majority ended up in the garbage, with a few turning into rags and a decent number landing in a donation bin when I lived in a building with one.

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

#480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If part of it is sold, isn't it better than if it had all been destroyed? It's literally what that law is for.

Define what you mean by "better". Putting them on a giant CO2-burning ship to transport around the world to find every last person who wants a $1 shirt is much more harmful to the environment than just throwing it into a hole in the ground and making another one.

The additional shipments aren't going to drastically go up over a few more companies throwing second hand clothing on ships. Large crate ships are relatively efficient for what they tow.

As basic napkin math, if there's 1000 cargo ships moving in and out of the EU in a year, and this law adds 10 more. That's 1% increase. It's a bigger 1%, but I wouldn't be surprised if the emissions are less than the 9% of discarded clothes talked about in the article.

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