The majority of textiles and clothing sold in the European Union disproportionately consume resources in their production, use hazardous chemical products, hardly recycle materials and in many cases employ people in developing countries in deplorable conditions, mostly women. Some of these issues ‘fast fashion‘ anyone fast fashionbased on taking nearly unused clothing every year and throwing it away.
Virginijus Sinkevicius, Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries of the European Commission, told Efeverde, “All this is probably true. The challenge is big and that’s why the textile industry always evades any regulation. But problems pile up.” .
Headed by the Lithuanian politician, who is now 31 years old and 29 years old when he took office in 2019 and is the youngest commissioner in the history of the European Executive Board, the department aims to promote the transition to a more sustainable sector.
“It takes very little time to produce certain garments, like jeans or sneakers, but a huge amount of resources. And then it may even be in the closet and never used until thrown away. And all those resources are wasted,” he says.
The textile industry is the fourth largest contributor to climate change. It ranks third – after food, shelter and mobility – and in water and land use. Also, according to the European Environment Agency, only 1% of textiles are of recycled origin, and each European throws away 11 kilos of clothing a year.
All this serves to make products cheaper, but “cheap prices often mean cheap work, often violating workers’ rights, huge pressure on resources, use of unsustainable materials such as chemicals, etc. And when discarded, they end up in landfills or incinerators. ”
“Obviously we need to intervene” He defends Sinkevicius, whose mandate comes under the umbrella of the European Green Deal to make the EU green and decarbonised, led by European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans.
Preparing new legislation for the sector
broker has new legislation on eco-designIf you are a manufacturer or marketer in the EU, there is still ongoing aiming to implement a ‘responsibility scheme’ such that you will need to collect and recycle certain quantities.
“It’ll take time, but it’s workable. And I feel great support from the fashion industrybecause many are on the road to more sustainability and want similar game rules for everyone,” the curator explained to Efeverde.
Last year, Sinkevicius visited the Spanish headquarters of textile giant Inditex, which was founded by Amancio Ortega and has 6,477 stores worldwide and is the parent company of Zara, Zara Home, Bershka, Massimo Dutti and Pull&Bear.
“I am very impressed with the progress they have made. I’ve been talking to the (textile) group heads and small businesses and I actually feel their support because they think the market is the ‘Wild West’ now,” he says.
“Fast fashion” model (fast fashion) does not even benefit the consumer, because “Clothes in Europe are cheaper than they were two decades ago, but the average European household spends more on clothes each year“, says Sinkevicius, who at the age of 27 is already Lithuania’s Minister of Economy.
The fashion industry bills around 166,000 million euros a year (about 172,208 million dollars at current exchange rates) in the EU, and according to Eurostat, whose data also shows the community club imported 69,000 million euros (71,580 million) in 2020, 1.7 million employs people. exported 30,000 million dollars (31,123 million dollars) in clothing.
Future textile legislation will have implications beyond EU bordersmainly imports textiles from China, Turkey and Bangladesh.
It responds to a logic that has inspired more and more dossiers in Brussels. The Commission also proposed a due diligence law to make it harder for large companies to accept labor practices prohibited in the European Union into their foreign supply chains.
Sales in the EU do not include cutting trees at source
It is also processedRegulations to ensure that sales of wood, coffee, meat, soybeans, cocoa and palm oil in the EU do not result in felling of trees in their place of originanother to improve soil quality, another to restore natural areas and increase biodiversity, and another to use less pesticides in agriculture.
The commissioner, who is also responsible for fishing regulations, assures that European environmental policies will help farmers reduce operating costs, create more productive ecosystems and restore pollinating insect populations.
The Brussels roadmap neither has nor will have an inflationary effect on food.It is already under great pressure from the projected “dependence on fossil fuels” in food production and Russia’s blockade of millions of tons of grain in Ukraine, he summarizes.
“It will only have positive effects in the long run,” says Sinkevicius, who monitors the geopolitical situation with particular attention, as his wife and mother of his two children, aged 2 and 4, are Ukrainian.
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Environment department contact address:[email protected]
Source: Informacion
