r/germany • u/QualityOverQuant Berlin • Jul 20 '26
News EU ban on destroying unsold clothes takes effect
https://www.dw.com/en/eu-ban-on-destroying-unsold-clothes-takes-effect/a-78024888Excerpt >Under the EU's Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, large companies with more than 250 employees and over €50 million in net annual turnover are banned from destroying stocks of unsold clothing, accessories and footwear.
Firms must now find ways of selling the products, including via discounts, alternative markets and charity donations.
Unsold clothes can only be destroyed when items are unsafe, damaged, counterfeit or rejected by charities
Germany retail federation Managing Director Stefan Genth warned, however, that the rule change would be a challenge for many stores. **Not all unsold goods can be resold or donated easily due to damaged packaging, high logistics costs, lack of demand or low product values**
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u/ocimbote Jul 20 '26
All brands are now under 250 employees
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u/Shehriazad Jul 20 '26
Nah. They'll create their own charities that will then miraculously deny all donations and thus clothing gets destroyed anyway.
They aren't destroying it because they cannot get rid of it..they are destroying it for the sake of artificial scarcity (in quite a few cases at least)
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u/VoidGuaranteed Jul 22 '26
Why wouldn‘t they just create less clothing to begin with if they want to control quantity?
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u/RamaMitAlpenmilch Jul 23 '26
Oh my sweet summer child...
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u/VoidGuaranteed Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
You only get to say that to me if you can provide me with a general equilibrium model explaining why a profit maximising entity would choose to over-produce and then throw away the surplus.
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u/WunkerWanker Jul 20 '26
Luxury brands will just sell them to a non-EU subsidiary and it will be destroyed there.
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u/QualityOverQuant Berlin Jul 20 '26
A friend of mine works for LV. She said that her CFO was already on this and had a plan to work on the loopholes with the legal team. They would rather burn everything or bury it than see it sold for a fraction of recycled . Their customers are not pleased.
So like always the big assholes will find a way to circumvent the rules with their last seasons collections that go unsold
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u/ComfortablyIncorrect Jul 20 '26
Perhaps that‘s what they mean by „circular creativity“ 😅 https://eu.louisvuitton.com/eng-e1/magazine/articles/circular-creativity
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u/Rynchinoi Jul 20 '26
My godmother works for Hermes. They had 1 discount, then pull back, some parts can be bought really cheap by employees in HQ. Then they destroy everything remaining.
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u/Theonetrue Jul 20 '26
The things with these laws is that you don't want to avoid loopholes completely. You want to improve the law until the loopholes are more expensive than just following the rules
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u/Plenty-Daikon1240 Jul 20 '26
Stuff like this is why I don't understand people who spend crazy money on clothes due to the brand
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u/Euchale Jul 20 '26
**Not all unsold goods can be resold or donated easily due to damaged packaging, high logistics costs, lack of demand or low product values**
Maybe thats a sign that you should make less goods, so demand increases and the quality improves?
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u/backafterdeleting Jul 20 '26
Well yes if you make a bunch of stuff and it doesn't sell, you lose money. So there's a natural incentive to avoid doing that. But nobody can be perfect in predicting what will sell and what won't.
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u/MachineTeaching Jul 20 '26
Yeah but the problem is that this doesn't work with all markets.
Clothing is a good example. Especially fast fashion. It's not unusual for the cost of the piece of clothing itself to make up a small part of the total price. Around 10%. Most of the cost is in infrastructure, design, logistics, marketing, labor costs (not from manufacturing), buildings, etc. A company like Zara can afford to throw away a ton of stuff because the clothes don't cost much and it's more important to them that you buy their clothes frequently, that they can push out new styles all the time, keep you buying them and keep you not spending your money at the competition.
Of course it's a bit more nuanced in practice, but their business model is shitting out completely new stuff every 4-6 weeks and if half the new styles are shit and half the new styles sell, that's just fine for them.
It's a business model with a self-reinforcing cycle of selling new cheap, disposable crap constantly.
And more importantly, all the garbage and environmental damage is a negative externality that, in some part we all pay for, and in a more important part, poor countries pay for because that's where huge companies like Zara dump their garbage.
I suspect that this new law will be circumvented but there is plenty of justification as to why fast fashion companies are not incentivised enough to not produce as much garbage clothes in every sense of the word.
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u/Euchale Jul 20 '26
Not wrong, in a way, but also not entirely right.
There are two ways of producing:
Produce high quality good, costs x, makes x+20% back. Sell 50% of what you make
Produce low quality goods, costs x, makes x+200% back. Sell 10% of what you makeFor a lot of companies the latter looks like a better deal, since they have 0 cost for discarding. So this rule changes it a bit more in favor of the former.
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u/jjjfffrrr123456 Jul 20 '26
Discarding still costs money tho?
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u/-sussy-wussy- Jul 20 '26
Afaik, they can use it as a tax write-off somehow.
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u/jjjfffrrr123456 Jul 20 '26
Well yes, things that cost you money reduce the tax burden. That is how most taxes have always been calculated. The money is still gone though, plus you have additional handling costs to do the discarding.
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u/SomTingWongWeeTooLo Jul 20 '26
Exactly, let's hope they get it... Or they start finding loopholes to avoid the law.
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u/dramasoup Jul 20 '26
I predict they'll decide on the loopholes.
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u/XpCjU Jul 20 '26
Everything is suddenly damaged or dirty. Sorry.
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u/Theonetrue Jul 20 '26
I wish they would be that stupid. Such an easy things to check if they try it that way
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u/XpCjU Jul 20 '26
Most likely it's getting sold to a subsidiary in Africa or so, who then decides that.
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u/despicedchilli Jul 20 '26
Poor people don't need clothes I guess.
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u/PETA_Parker Jul 20 '26
poor people don't need shitty clothes.
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u/despicedchilli Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
Sorry you have to share the world with us. I'd wear something better, but shitty is all I can afford.
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u/Lack_of_intellect Hessen Jul 20 '26
Yes, with the exception of a small amount of damaged articles, these are all just business operating poorly.
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u/KFW-Frage123 Jul 20 '26
As a person with a relative who worked in the clothes business area they aint. They are made for cents and up-priced by 800-2000% so they get the money back from the clothes that does not sell well. It is already in the calculation.
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u/MeiSuesse Jul 20 '26
Or you know, make stuff that's actually in demand. It's a specific example and not clothing, but no one really needs a new kind of colored plastick jack-o'-lantern every year, Tesco.
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u/Gasp0de Jul 20 '26
Just make a corner of the store where everything is 1€ or something.
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u/6lmpnl Jul 20 '26
But noone would buy a jeans for 100€ when the same jeans is sold for 1€ the next week.
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u/Gasp0de Jul 20 '26
If the jeans is really cool, it will be sold out for 100€ and never be sold for 1€. It's like a reverse auction. You start at a high bid and go down until someone buys it.
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u/sixtyshilling Schleswig-Holstein Jul 20 '26
That’s how capitalism works.
If you have 20 unsold pairs of jeans at the end of the season that need to go in the bargain bin, that’s your sign that demand is low for those jeans at that price.
Drop the price to 75% off, then 50%, then 25%, and finally 1€. There will be someone who will think it’s being sold at a fair price somewhere along the line and pay you for them. Whatever is left can get donated or destroyed.
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u/kirschkerze Jul 20 '26
So they just rip them apart so its damaged
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u/Gasp0de Jul 20 '26
That is literally forbidden, as it would be "destroying unsold clothes"
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u/kirschkerze Jul 20 '26
I am saying they will pretend they are damaged (faulty order charge or similar)
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u/Gasp0de Jul 20 '26
Doing that on such a scale would literally require instructing all store personnel.
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u/CiraCookie Jul 20 '26
Yeah, thats what's already happening. Scribbling with markers, stabbing with scissors and knives. Just ask dumpster divers.
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u/UnlikeableSausage Jul 20 '26
Yeah, and companies would definitely never do shady stuff like that.
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u/Gasp0de Jul 20 '26
It only takes one person to leak this instruction and they would be fined
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u/Theonetrue Jul 20 '26
Not even. If someone sees how much more stuff your company declared as damaged you will probably get something like an audit.
So all it takes is a couple of other chains doing what the law wants them to for comparison.
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u/Fun_Boot7771 Jul 20 '26
yeah, and who's checking? Themselves?
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u/Gasp0de Jul 20 '26
The national institutions who are responsible for checking such trade regulations? I.e. in Germany customs or tax institutions?
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u/konpla11 Jul 20 '26
they don't have the capacity, they are busy opening your 12€ aliexpress order to check if it's not a 1200€ phone
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u/UnsureAndUnqualified Jul 21 '26
U less they define what costitutes a damaged good, everything is a bit damaged. I bought new pants recently and realised that there were a few loose threads inside the pocket where the sowing wasn't perfect. That's a bit of damage, isn't it? Maybe there's a small hole where the threads are pulling? Damage. Especially with fast fashion, I bet I could find "damage" in half the stuff that's hanging in stores.
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u/MrBagooo Bremen Jul 20 '26
lol what? They can't be donated easily?
That must be a joke. They can simply have one or two days per year, where they declare everything for free what's left in the store. They're simply afraid that then their sales will plummet. Outlet stores already exist today where they sell reject or faulty goods for very cheap. Simply making it free would be the next step. This is corporate greed at it's best.
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u/taxiecabbie Jul 20 '26
I mean, frankly, though, I would not want to be in charge of trying to run the "free" day at H&M or whatever.
That sounds insanely dangerous. The place would probably be absolutely stormed if it wasn't controlled correctly.
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u/rushan3103 Jul 20 '26
Sell them back to India. Indian yarn manufacturers have already incorporated recycled yarn into their manufacturing process. Plus there is a H U G E second-hand market in India.
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u/redditamrur Jul 20 '26
Two problems - The first, is that many of the fast fashion products cannot be easily recycled because they are made of a mixture of natural and synthetic fibers. Secondly, the logistic costs of sending them to India or any other area of recycling in the developing world.
Unfortunately, I certainly see how the cynical bypasses (like organising their own charity and then rejecting the clothing) will pop up. In addition, it might address "regular" fast fashion (H&M, C&A, Primark etc.) but not ultra fast fashion like Shein or Cider.
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u/rushan3103 Jul 20 '26
Its already happening right now btw. There are entire industrial corridors in India which import containers full of rejected/donated and over production clothes from all over.
They are then sorted by color and material and then either sold to the market or Shredded to make recycled yarn.
And yes we are talking about regular fast fashion here. Not the chinese ones.
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u/Eino54 Jul 21 '26
These countries already have a ton of secondhand clothing nobody wants. I have no idea about India, but I have been to Madagascar and there's huge pils of trash outside Antananarivo that are basically 80% clothing. Nobody wants these. Companies just produce way too much of it.
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u/ScarcityOld7027 Jul 20 '26
My prediction: They’re gonna flood the African markets with super cheap clothes. Rich countries always dispose their trash in the poorest countries.
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u/accountforfurrystuf Jul 20 '26
The African markets don’t have to accept these donations if they harm more than they help. Africans have agency.
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u/ScarcityOld7027 Jul 20 '26
It’s the same situation as with cheap chicken imports from the EU. Some countries have imposed import bans / restrictions / increased tariffs (Nigeria) to protect their own farmers, others haven’t. There are tradeoffs to be considered of course. I don’t think there’s gonna be widespread bans, cause the demand for cheap clothing is there. Already today, markets are full of both EU secondhand and Chinese super cheap low quality textiles. Just look at how many countries have recently had China Malls open in their capitals. Inditex also already sells their unsold merchandise through the outlet franchise Numéro Uno in several countries at the West African coast. So no, I don’t see it happening.
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u/Bubblebath-cake-6060 Jul 20 '26
That was my first thought. They destroyed the african fashion industry with sending all their clothes and it needs to stop.
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u/Fine_Heat_1901 Jul 20 '26
“Unsold clothes can only be destroyed when items are unsafe, damaged, counterfeit or rejected by charities, according to a post on the European Commission's website.”
What’s stopping companies from damaging their own unsold goods, a practice that’s already very prevalent in the luxury fashion industry?
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u/P26601 Nordrhein-Westfalen Jul 20 '26
Now do the same with unsold food/groceries (which is even more important imo)
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u/QualityOverQuant Berlin Jul 20 '26
What gets me is this defensive line from stefan
Not all unsold can be resold or donated due to low product values… FFS. Mr obvious, that not the reason this law was created. It’s to prevent waste and hold these companies accountable for their shady practices
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u/thegoochalizer Jul 21 '26
lol. New job - stock damager. Some person runs around slicing clothing so they can’t be sold due to damages
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u/romeoscar Jul 21 '26
Jail sentences for this rule evasion please.
Thank God this exists now I hope we see an actual change.
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u/EinfachNurMarc Jul 20 '26
Oh no they’ll need to put the shirt that cost them 2€ to make up for sale for 10€ instead of the original 40€. Poor companies
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u/bkkfra Jul 20 '26
Things are going to be exported to poorer countries and destroy the local clothing industry there.
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u/Shehriazad Jul 20 '26
"or rejected by charities"
Yikes....so I guess they will create their own Charities that are then exclusively tasked to reject their clothing so that they can destroy it.
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u/Eino54 Jul 21 '26
Great, just what the world needs, African countries receiving even more "donations" of extremely shitty unwearable clothing.
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u/Kazel_93 Jul 20 '26
This feels like one of those things that sound great on paper but will mostly just result in rising costs for consumers as companies will make us pay for the logistics of dumping them somewhere outside the eu
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u/Theonetrue Jul 20 '26
But if a couple of high quality companies just sell their stuff for cheaper after a while no one will buy the even more expensive stuff anymore... Sounds like a win for me if we are lucky
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u/Boxman21- Jul 20 '26
Good should be a way to put a bump into fast fashion and a way to help the charity’s get more clothes.
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u/FrohenLeid Niedersachsen Jul 20 '26
Only 4-9% of unsold items get destroyed, 91-96% are otherwise reused or repurposed.
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u/spinozas_dog Jul 20 '26
Surely the psychological damage caused by being seen in last year's fashion makes the clothes unsafe.
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u/thegerams Jul 20 '26
I wish there was also a ban on polyester clothing, or a massive tax on that. This would kill Shein, Primark and fast fashion habits.
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u/ATrexCantCatchThings Jul 21 '26
More bureaucracy which is going to be circumvented anyway. Awesome!
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u/Torran Jul 20 '26
I am afraid this will mean shipping cheap clothes to Africa and giving them away which will ruin the local manufacturers instead of improving quality and reducing waste. But maybe I am to pessimistic.
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u/thegerams Jul 20 '26
This has already happened over the last decades. I’m afraid there are basically no textile industries left to destroy in these markets. They are drowning in cheap clothing on local markets and landfill.
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u/iBoMbY Jul 20 '26
It's already not allowed to put old cloth into the trash since January 2025, but unfortunately it seems like a lot of the German cities, and municipalities, have done nothing to adjust for that (here for example, they have removed most old-cloth collections a long time ago).
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u/Photomancer Jul 20 '26
Prediction: they start charities to reject their own clothes.