EU countries back ban on destruction of unsold textiles

Textile consumption in Europe has the fourth-highest impact on the environment and climate change after food, housing and mobility.

About 5.8 million tonnes of textiles are discarded every year in the EU, approximately 11kg per person, much of it put into landfill or incinerated.

The legislative proposal which still needs to be approved by the European Parliament is part of a wider Ecodesign Regulation.

"Today's decision is an important step towards the green circular economy, as well as strengthening the single market," Swedish Industry Minister Ebba Busch told reporters after a meeting of the EU competitiveness council.

The new law would also create a new "digital product passport" showing a product's environmental sustainability to help consumers make more informed choices.

Separately, European Commission Vice President, Margrethe Vestager commented on the Irish Data Protection Commissioner's decision to hit Meta with a record 1.2 billion euro fine over its handling of user information.

Europe is open for business. You're welcome to do your business here, no matter where you're headquartered. But there is a single rulebook and that has to be followed," she said.

The penalty came after Meta continued to transfer data beyond a 2020 EU court ruling that invalidated an EU-US data transfer pact.

The Irish watchdog, which is the lead EU regulator for many of the world's top technology companies because of the location of their European headquarters in Ireland, has now fined Meta a total of 2.5 billion euros for breaches under the bloc's General Data Protection Regulation's (GDPR),

Reuters