The new rules mean clothing companies and manufacturers will have to pay a fee to cover the costs of collection and treatment of textile waste.
BRUSSELS — A world-first European Union law will force restaurants and clothing retailers to reduce their waste, as Brussels targets excess consumption of food and fast fashion.
Under a deal struck between EU institutions on Wednesday, member countries will have to reduce food waste by 10 percent in the processing and manufacturing sector by 2030, and by 30 percent in retail, restaurants and households, compared to 2021-2023 levels.
Fashion brands, meanwhile, will have to pay a fee for the processing of their products once they become waste.
When the law is passed, the EU will be the first region in the world to have set binding food waste targets.
Every year, the EU throws out about 59 million metric tons of food, roughly 132 kilograms per person, according to data from the EU statistics department. The EU estimates that this waste leads to a financial loss of over €130 billion. The bloc’s textiles waste, meanwhile, runs to 12.6 million tons per year, much of which ends up in landfill in Europe and overseas.
With the new rules, clothing companies and manufacturers — including small businesses, but excluding secondhand stores — across the bloc will have to pay a fee to cover the costs of collection and treatment of textile waste.
Known as extended producer responsibility schemes, the fee system also aims to encourage sustainable design of fabrics. EU countries, like France, that wish to penalize fast fashion brands for the volumes of waste they produce can adapt the fees according to how long the clothes stay on the market.
However, fashion companies worry that this will « create a fragmented regulatory landscape, » industry groups had claimed in a press statement ahead of the negotiations.
“I believe the new rules will create a level playing field and address the massive generation of waste from fast fashion,” Commissioner for the Environment Jessika Roswall told POLITICO. “Member States are best placed to modulate the fees. If necessary the Commission can take further measures to harmonise criteria to avoid distortions on the internal market,” she added.
Not strong enough
The provisional deal — struck in the early hours of Wednesday morning after months of negotiations between the European Parliament, the Council of the EU and the European Commission — was not as strong as Parliament had originally hoped.
Back in March, lawmakers had pushed for a 20 percent reduction target for processing, and 40 percent for retail and households. But the new Parliament in the end accepted member countries’ weaker targets. Zero Waste Europe, an NGO, blamed this on « the political shift to the right » in Parliament following the election last June.
« We’ve taken concrete steps to reduce waste without drowning businesses in bureaucracy. At the same time, we’ve ensured that policies to reduce food waste have absolutely no negative impact on the agricultural sector, » said Anna Zalewska, a member of the European Parliament from the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists group, and lead negotiator on the file.
Fynn Hauschke, a policy officer at the European Environment Bureau, said the compromise deal failed to align the EU with the global goal of halving food loss by 2030.
“This lack of ambition disregards the urgent food waste crisis, squanders a key opportunity to cut greenhouse gas emissions, and undermines food security and biodiversity,” he added.
During the negotiations, member countries pushed back against higher targets, considering them to be unfeasible in a five-year time frame. The Council had also refused to make excess food donations mandatory — another request from Parliament — and had asked for exemptions to accommodate countries that generate more food waste because of tourism.
The final deal omitted taking action against food losses and waste at the primary production level, meaning farmers will be exempt.
The final targets are aligned with what the Commission had originally suggested when it came up with the proposal to review EU waste rules.
The provisional agreement still has to be endorsed by all countries in the Council and get a majority vote in Parliament, before getting a final legal review to be adopted as EU law. « We still have to look closely at the compromise [text], » an EU diplomat told POLITICO.