The Greens faction in the European Parliament has criticized the exceptions included in the EU’s planned ban on the destruction of returned goods from online retail. According to the EU Parliament member and Chair of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, Anna Cavazzini, the ban, in its current form, is riddled with loopholes, diminishing its effectiveness and credibility.
Starting July 19th, major fashion brands and parcel services will no longer be permitted to arbitrarily destroy unsold clothing, shoes, and fashion accessories. This restriction is part of the EU’s Ecodesign Regulation (ESPR).
However, a subsequently adopted EU legal act from February contains various exceptions. Under these rules, fashion companies may still destroy textiles if they offered them as donations, but the merchandise was not accepted within a specified timeframe. Furthermore, destruction may continue to be permissible if it represents the option with the least negative environmental impact.
Despite the existence of this ban, Cavazzini called for “clear mechanisms to prevent the abuse of exceptions, backed by real monitoring and the Commission’s readiness to apply corrective action if these are used systematically”. She stressed that the ban on destruction is fundamentally important.
Cavazzini noted that, according to estimates, between 11 and 32 million unsold and returned T-shirts are destroyed in Europe every year. She emphasized that every discarded item represents the loss of valuable resources-including water, energy, raw materials, labor, and craftsmanship-and that this unnecessary waste must be halted.
