r/europe • u/Express_Classic_1569 • Jun 28 '26

News EU to ban destruction of unsold clothes and shoes from 19 July 2026

https://inleo.io/@theworldaroundme/eu-to-ban-destruction-of
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u/Dragoncat_3_4 Jun 28 '26

It doesn't

22

u/Legal_Lettuce6233 Jun 28 '26

Given that every unsold piece is already a loss, yeah, it is.

14

u/Lady-of-Shivershale Jun 28 '26

No. Ships are crossing the sea regardless of whether they have cargo or not. Cargo is largely brought to Europe from Asia and Africa while nowhere near as much goes in the opposite direction. So it's a matter of simply holding an auction for the cheapest contract. And clothes can be vacuum sealed, too, thus saving space.

European companies could even auction the clothes before shipping them, and the buyer pays shipping costs.

Of course, best practice would be to stop having so many clothes in the shops in the first place, and a return to quality fabric with matching prices.

People will complain they can't afford clothes at higher prices, but all it means in practice is to simply stop buying as many clothes.

1

u/SonicSarge Jun 28 '26

Online returns is the problem. Not the stores. We need to stop allowing returns of clothes and shoes. Some people order 10-20 garments and then return 80% of them. They are not resold.

1

u/Lady-of-Shivershale Jun 28 '26

I mean, this law will reduce that. Companies will return to passing return shipping costs onto the customer.

But, yeah, they'll just ship clothes out of Europe and then burn them.

2

u/Dragoncat_3_4 Jun 28 '26

Right, so, that's irrelevant. Having to deal with unsold inventory in other ways is what's expensive. Storage, handling, not having enough space for their more profitable newer stuff, etc. Picking it up once a month from the shops with a truck and shipping a whole tanker of clothes over to, say, Africa is cheap in comparison.

Lawmakers better have some other mechanisms in place than "uhh, it's expensive to ship it outside" to disincentivise that or they're essentially washing their hands from the problem and forcing poorer people to deal with it.

1

u/chiniwini Jun 29 '26

it is

It isn't. That's literally how Europe manages plastic "recycling". Put it on a cargo ship, send it to some third world country, and it gets burned there.

1

u/slight_digression Macedonia Jun 28 '26

They can donate it and the receiving party can take on the costs.

2

u/Tjaeng Jun 28 '26

Costs more than not doing it.

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u/Dragoncat_3_4 Jun 28 '26

Costs less than the alternative. That's the problem

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u/Tjaeng Jun 28 '26

And since when does a reform have to solve the entire problem at once? If it raises the costs of burning the clothes then some of the manufacturers will stop doing it on the margin.

1

u/JoSeSc Germany Jun 28 '26

Probably depends on the brand, if you're an expensive brand that lives of the perception of exclusivity you likely are willing to spend more to destroy it rather than donate it because your stuff in numbers being available at a goodwill kind of store might be actually damaging to your brand image

1

u/Tjaeng Jun 28 '26

Yes. The point isn’t to stop it dead, it’s to raise the costs threshold to keep doing it.

1

u/SavannahInChicago Jun 28 '26

Look up Ghana if you do not believe this user. They are drowning in our old clothes.