Food waste, fast fashion... The European Union officially tackles its waste

The European Parliament is preparing to definitively adopt a law on Tuesday against food waste and textile waste, particularly that linked to fast fashion, the millions of cheap garments imported from China. Each European generates an average of 130 kilos of food waste and around 15 kilos of textile waste per year, a sector where recycling is almost non-existent, according to the EU.

The new law, which does not detail concrete measures, sets binding targets for states to reduce food waste. By 2030, each member state will have to reduce food waste from retail, catering, and households by 30%, and that generated by food processing and manufacturing by 10%, compared to annual volumes recorded between 2021 and 2023.

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At first reading a year and a half ago, MEPs voted for more ambitious targets - 40 and 20% - but a compromise had to be struck with the Commission and the 27 in the final version. Hotel and restaurant professionals, for their part, wanted to avoid restrictive targets and stick to education. "The key lies above all in raising awareness, including among consumers: more than 50% of food waste in Europe occurs at the household level," says Marine Thizon of Hotrec, the European lobby for hotels, restaurants, and cafes.

To achieve their goals, states will be able to choose prevention programs adapted to the organization of their agri-food sector. "The idea is to adopt targeted solutions (...) highlighting 'ugly' fruits and vegetables (which large retailers do not put on their shelves), clarifying labeling, and donating unsold, still edible products" to food banks and charities," explains Polish MEP Anna Zalewska (ECR), rapporteur of the text.

However, no targets have been assigned to the agricultural sector, a fact denounced by NGOs such as the WWF . After household and food industry waste, "losses that occur before, during, and after harvesting or livestock farming represent a considerable portion of food waste throughout the value chain," this environmental organization emphasizes. This law revises a directive on waste that has existed in the EU since 2008. And at the initiative of MEPs, it includes a sector that was not previously included: the textile industry.

In a polluter-pays approach, producers in the sector will have to ensure the collection, sorting, and recycling of end-of-life clothing and cover the costs. Here again, it will be up to the states to determine any costs that producers will have to pay. The European Union is highlighting the impact of textile production on water consumption: manufacturing a cotton t-shirt requires 2,700 liters of fresh water (including agricultural irrigation), enough to cover one person's drinking water needs for two and a half years. The European Parliament is particularly targeting "ultra-ephemeral" fashion, fast fashion, low-cost clothing often sourced from China.

Also read : Ultra fast fashion: Shein sales exceed 10 billion dollars

Although it denies it, the Chinese-born platform Shein is regularly presented as an emblem of the social and environmental excesses of this fashion industry. In February, the European Commission opened an investigation into the company, suspected of insufficiently combating the sale of illegal products that do not comply with European standards. Brussels also wants to combat the massive influx of small, cheap parcels into its territory, with a proposal still under consideration to impose a tax of two euros per parcel. Last year, 4.6 billion such parcels entered the EU—more than 145 per second—91% of which came from China.