EU to ban ‘fast fashion’ to tackle environmental waste
The European Union (EU) is seeking to adopt new policies to phase out “fast fashion” to reduce the amount of clothing waste in member states and encourage manufacturers to create sustainable products.
The EU strategy has set a 2030 target to implement changes that will see textiles and clothing products put on the market in the bloc be both fully recyclable and have a long lifespan, to reduce Estimated 15 pounds of clothing waste per person per year.
“Companies will have to change their business models and it will be much easier for consumers to be able to choose the sustainable garment over another,” said Yvonne Augustsson, textile expert at the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, reports the SVT television channel.
“Textiles are a priority issue at EU level because they have a major impact on the climate and the environment,” Augustsson said and added, “the zipper breaks, the garment twists or loses its color These are the reasons why many people get rid of their clothes before they are worn out.
EU’s Von Der Leyen announces expansion of green agenda at World Economic Forum https://t.co/VbXrUwiYX4
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondres) January 18, 2023
“The solution is to use clothes that are already made, but for a longer period of time. If we double the time of use, we halve the climate impact, provided we don’t buy a new garment during the same period,” she said.
According to Augustsson, a single t-shirt requires 2,500 liters of water and about a pound of chemicals to manufacture, while creating between 4 and 17 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions, whether the garment is worn a or hundreds of times.
The clothing strategy is just one part of the European Union’s green agenda, which was developed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last month at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, in Swiss.
President von der Leyen spoke about the “Net-Zero Industry Act” which aims to push green investments in various sectors of European industry.
“The aim will be to focus investments on strategic projects along the supply chain,” she said and added, “We will look in particular at how to simplify and speed up authorizations for new production sites clean technologies”.
Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or by e-mail at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.
Breitbart
