EU proposes new rules to discourage disposable fast fashion

Almost three-quarters of clothing and textiles used in the EU are imported.

The European Union has warned consumers to stop using clothes like disposable tissues and said it plans to counter the polluting use of fast fashion.

New rules proposed by the EU’s executive arm call for a mandatory minimum use of recycled fibres by 2030 and would ban the destruction of many unsold products.

The European Commission rules also seek to contain the release of microplastics and improve global labour conditions in the garment industry.

“We want sustainable products to become the norm,” commission vice president Frans Timmermans said. “The clothes we wear should last longer than three washes.” 

The changes would require a massive shift in an industry that produces items with a short lifespan in developing nations in Asia and Latin America, often under poor working conditions.

“All textiles should be long lasting, recyclable, made of recycled fibres and free of dangerous substances. The strategy also aims to boost reuse and repair sectors and address textile waste,” Mr Timmermans said.

Almost three-quarters of clothing and textiles used in the EU are imported.

In 2019, the 27-nation bloc imported more than €80 billion in clothes, mainly from China, Bangladesh and Turkey, according to the EC, and the average consumer throws away 11 kilos of textiles a year.

The EU also wants luxury brands to set the standard for sustainable fashion in an industry where the fleeting and ephemeral is essential to turnover.

“There’s a cultural change taking place,” Mr Timmermans said, adding that major fashion houses “are always the first to show the way forward”.

“The designers, the artists, they realise that the world has changed and that we need to revisit the way we design fashion,” he said.