EU bans the destruction of unsold apparel, clothing, accessories and footwear • Hacker News Board

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

#891

Post by makingstuffs » Sun, Feb 22, 2026, 3:33 AM UTC

skeptic_ai wrote: post #729

makingstuffs wrote: post #614

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No big brand would ever sell their originals that didn’t sell cheap This is just inherently incorrect. In Europe we have a load of outlet villages which is where big brands do exactly that. It’s where I do most of my shopping. Last year I bought two pairs of Nike Dunks for £25 a pop. I bought Salomon hiking shoes for £60 instead of £140. A pair of Levis 501s for £20. Just an example or my most recent purchases.

Nike yeah, but not luxury brands usually.

Not sure what you’re considering luxury but it definitely is not just Nike et al: https://www.mcarthurglen.com/en/outlets/uk/designer-outlet-a...

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

#892

Post by blharr » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 7:49 AM UTC

CivBase wrote: post #580

blharr wrote: post #535

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's stopping the price from being extremely low? Plenty might pay $1 to take a bundle of 1000 items of clothing, pick through it and find 20 items they like, then destroy the 980 other items.

Isn't that still better than it all getting destroyed? Also if someone is buying new goods for pennies on the dollar, I'd expect them to find some value in more than 2% of the stock.

Except being destroyed locally in a controlled or regulated process and shipped to be destroyed overseas with more relaxed regulations are not equal footprint wise

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

#893

Post by blharr » Wed, Feb 25, 2026, 7:55 AM UTC

exe34 wrote: post #661

blharr wrote: post #535

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's stopping the price from being extremely low? Plenty might pay $1 to take a bundle of 1000 items of clothing, pick through it and find 20 items they like, then destroy the 980 other items.

sounds like an improvement on the current system, no?

980 items being shipped then destroyed versus 1000 items being destroyed.

It's 980(x+y) instead of 1000(x)

I have no knowledge of the tradeoffs, but I might also imagine that the method of destruction could be worse: incineration vs landfill vs thrown in the ocean, etc

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

#894

Post by ryantgtg » Thu, Feb 26, 2026, 4:23 AM UTC

eddythompson80 wrote: post #440

ryantgtg wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You appear to be agreeing with the person you’re replying to.

I'm not. Read their comment and mine. This was always, and will always be a thing. It's not a burden, just a marginal cost of business. Instead of paying a European company a €40k to destroy your broken products, you can pay an African one €10k to "recycle" your product. Best of all, you're legally forced to. I can see hundreds of companies lobbying for this because it completely takes them off the hook. "The law say…

Read their comment and yours? What great advice. I would suggest you do the same, but I think you'll continue to misread it.

> No one is going to pay you to take your waste away and dispose of it. You would have to pay them.

> lol, paying someone to "take your waste away and dispose of it" has been a stable of the "recycle" industry in western countries for 3 decades now.

They are saying that paying to dispose of the clothes/waste is how it's done. And then... you said the same thing. Perhaps you're assuming they're just taking a guess, rather than coming at it with understanding that this is how it has been done for a while.