Will new legally binding targets turn the fight against waste around?
Every year, millions of tonnes of food and textile waste are generated in the EU. The mantra of reduce, reuse and recycle to promote the circular economy does not seem to be enough to drive change.
ADVERTISEMENT
Around 60 million tonnes of food waste are generated in the EU every year, causing economic losses of €132 billion. Annually, the bloc also generates almost 13 million tonnes of textile waste, of which 5.2 million tonnes are clothing and footwear, equivalent to 12 kg per person.
The European Council and the European Parliament have just reached a provisional agreement on the Waste Framework Directive, setting new reduction targets to be met by 2030:
- 30% in retail, supermarkets, restaurants, catering and households
- 10% in the manufacture and the processing of foods
But the farming sector, where about 11% of food waste occurs, was exempted. "One of the problems is that farming has become a very hot political potato in recent months. So, legislators are sort of hesitant to impose further requirements on the farming sector," said Robert Hodgson, who followed the issue for Euronews.
©
Euronews
"The European Parliament originally wanted to have a review by the end of this year, with a possible target for farming to be put in place. But after the EU elections, the European Parliament shifted to the right and in the end of negotiations it was decided to do a review in 2027," he added.
Some member states are performing better at reducing food waste, with the best mechanisms for donating food that is still safe to eat in place in Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Portugal.
But a lot of food that is still good for consumption ends up in the trash bin, especially in high-end environments like casinos, hotels and cruises.
"This demands a change of how people are working with food, how do we use all the ingredients. When I talk to chefs in restaurants, they are actually very keen to work on this because also nobody likes to throw out good food," said green Danish lawmaker Rasmus Nordqvist, shadow rapporteur on this directive.
Combat against fast and cheap fashion?
©
Euronews
There are no specific targets for the textile sector, which will instead be covered by the Extended Producer Responsibility regime. The companies will have to pay a certain fee to cover expenses related to re-collection, sorting and recycling of clothes once they become waste.
"Each country will have leeway to increase those fees in the case of fast fashion, based on ideas about how long clothes are in the market is and how long they're intended to be worn. They can increase the fees for companies that produce 'throwaway' clothes," according to Robert Hodgson.
The EU also participates in the export of illegal textile waste exports to less developed countries. Austria, Denmark, Finland, France and Sweden support a proposal for textiles to be classed alongside plastics and electronics in an international treaty aimed at preventing transfer of hazardous waste to less developed countries.
Rasmus Nordqvist worked in the textile industry for two decades before becoming a politician and expects the directive to curb that practice as "we are actually demanding producers to take responsibility all the way through the value chain".
"We're not going to change the whole industry just with this directive, but it's an important step because we need to first of all look at how are we consuming textiles, but also what do we do with them. And we need circularity within fashion industry. But that's the next step," he said.
Foods and textiles are two European industries which most need to adapt to the Green Deal, to make the industry more environmentally friendly. But it's not just about production methods which reduce use of natural resources and polluting gas emissions. Avoiding consumer waste and developing new approaches to waste culture is a big part of the challenge.
ADVERTISEMENT
Watch the video here!
Journalist: Isabel Marques da Silva
Content production: Pilar Montero López
Video production: Zacharia Vigneron
ADVERTISEMENT
Graphism: Loredana Dumitru
Editorial coordination: Ana Lázaro Bosch and Jeremy Fleming-Jones
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
4 hours ago
- France 24
Italy forges on with world's largest suspension bridge
The 13.5-billion-euro ($15.3-billion) project would carry trains and six lanes of traffic, allowing cars to cross the Strait of Messina in 15 minutes. Giorgia Meloni's hard-right government hopes to boost the economy of the impoverished region, although critics say there are better ways to do this -- and many believe that after decades of false starts, the bridge will never actually happen. The choppy waters between the eastern tip of Sicily and the western edge of the region of Calabria are legendary as the place where monsters Scylla and Charybdis terrified sailors in Homer's epic poem "The Odyssey". These days the challenges are more prosaic, from winds of more than 100 kilometres an hour (62 mph) to the real risk of earthquakes in a region that lies across two tectonic plates. The government says the bridge will be at the cutting edge of engineering, with the section suspended between its two pillars stretching 3.3 kilometres, the longest in the world. But critics point to a long history of public works announced, financed and never completed in Italy, whether due to corruption or political instability, resulting in enormous losses for taxpayers. "The public does not trust this political class and these projects that become endless construction sites," said Luigi Storniolo, a member of protest group No Ponte (No Bridge). Infrastructure Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, one of the main champions of the project, insists it will be a game-changer for the local economy. "The bridge will be a catalyst for development," he said on a recent visit to Reggio di Calabria, the city where the bridge will begin. 'A senseless project' The government hopes to boost trade in Sicily, which currently suffers from an "insularity cost" of around 6.5 billion euros a year, according to regional authorities. Meloni's ministers are expected to give their final approval to the project -- which Rome will fund -- later this month, and Salvini insists construction will begin this summer. But work had already been announced for the summer of 2024, before being postponed -- a common theme in the history of the bridge, the idea of which dates back to the unification of Italy at the end of the 19th century. The first law for the project was passed in 1971. Since then, successive governments have either revived it or cancelled it. In 2012, the idea appeared to be definitely abandoned amid the eurozone debt crisis, only for Meloni's government, which took office in 2022, to return to it once again. Salvini has repeatedly stated that the bridge would create 120,000 jobs in Calabria and Sicily, which have the fourth and the 13th highest unemployment rates respectively in the EU for young people under 29. However, the left-wing CGIL trade union estimates around 2,300 workers a year will be hired during the project, and critics say the jobs created will be offset by long-term losses from the closure of ferries. Mafia risk The project has sparked local protests, with critics warning of the impact on a protected marine zone and an important bird migratory route. Storniolo told AFP it was a "senseless project" which used up valuable funds when "our regions already suffer from many problems... healthcare, schools, and infrastructure." The Italian Court of Auditors has also criticised the extent of the debt-laden Italian state's investment in this one project in its assessment of the 2024 budget. "They want to make an entire territory believe that its only hope is this bridge -- but then the bridge never arrives," protester Storniolo added. There is also the question of mafia infiltration. The attorney general of Messina recently warned of the risk that organised crime would benefit from the project, noting that "the power of the mafia is hidden... behind public contracts". The government has proposed placing companies relating to the project under control of an anti-mafia structure reporting to the interior ministry. But Italian President Sergio Mattarella blocked this, saying it should only be used for one-off events such as earthquakes or the Olympics. Salvini argued that the bridge can help tackle the mafia, saying: "You do not fight the mafia... with conferences and protests, but by creating jobs and giving hope to young people."
France 24
8 hours ago
- France 24
Israel to expel French nationals on Gaza aid boat by end of week
The announcement came as France's prime minister accused activists aboard the boat -- who hoped to raise awareness about the humanitarian situation in war-torn Gaza -- of capitalising on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for political attention. The four, who include Rima Hassan, a member of European Parliament from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party who is of Palestinian descent, will be deported on Thursday and Friday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on X. They were among 12 people on board the Madleen sailboat which was carrying food and supplies for Gaza before it was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters off the besieged Palestinian territory on Monday. Four, including two French citizens and Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg, agreed to be deported immediately. The remaining eight were taken into custody after they refused to leave Israel voluntarily, according to Adalah, an Israeli rights NGO representing most of the activists. All 12 of them have been banned from Israel for 100 years. Adalah said on Wednesday that Israeli authorities had placed French MEP Hassan and Brazilian activist Thiago Avila in solitary confinement, with Hassan later removed. 'Abandoning French prisoners' "Israeli authorities transferred two of the volunteers -- the Brazilian volunteer Thiago Avila and the French-Palestinian European Parliament member Rima Hassan -- to separate prison facilities, away from the others, and placed them in solitary confinement," Adalah said in a statement. The NGO later said that Hassan had been moved back to Givon prison in Ramla, near Tel Aviv, while Avila remained in isolation. When asked for comment, Israel's prison authority referred AFP to the foreign ministry, which said it was checking the reports. Adalah said Hassan was put in isolation after writing "Free Palestine" on a prison wall. The NGO said Brazilian activist Avila was placed in isolation "due to his ongoing hunger and thirst strike, which he began two days ago." "He has also been treated aggressively by prison authorities, although this has not escalated to physical assault," it added. The leader of Hassan's LFI party in parliament, Mathilde Panot, said France's prime minister Francois Bayrou had failed to condemn Israel's actions. The party's boss, Jean-Luc Melenchon, accused Bayrou of "abandoning the French prisoners", and called on President Emmanuel Macron to step in. "These activists obtained the effect they wanted, but it's a form of instrumentalisation to which we should not lend ourselves," Bayrou responded in the National Assembly. It's "through diplomatic action, and efforts to bring together several states to pressure the Israeli government, that we can obtain the only possible solution" to the conflict, he added. Foreign Minister Barrot also rejected Panot's criticism, saying "the admirable mobilisation" of French officials had made a rapid resolution of the situation possible "despite the harassment and defamation that they have been subjected to". Mounting pressure France and Saudi Arabia are co-hosting a UN meeting later this month in New York on steps towards recognising a Palestinian state and reaching a so-called two-state solution to the conflict. Israel is facing mounting pressure to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, whose entire population the United Nations has warned is at risk of famine. Israel's defence minister Israel Katz on Wednesday called on Egypt to block a hundreds-strong pro-Palestinian activist convoy from reaching Gaza, as the group arrived in the Libyan capital of Tripoli. Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023 attacked Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says the retaliatory Israeli military offensive has killed at least 55,104 people, the majority civilians. The United Nations considers these figures to be reliable. Out of 251 taken hostage during the Hamas attack, 54 are still held in Gaza including 32 the Israeli military says are dead.
France 24
9 hours ago
- France 24
Israel to expel French 'Freedom Flotilla' activists, MEP Rima Hassan held in solitary confinement
The NGO representing most of the activists detained aboard a Gaza-bound aid boat that was intercepted by Israeli forces said Wednesday that two of the campaigners had been placed in solitary confinement in Israel. One of the two is Rima Hassan, a member of European Parliament from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party who is of Palestinian descent. "Israeli authorities transferred two of the volunteers the Brazilian volunteer Thiago Avila and the French-Palestinian European Parliament member Rima Hassan – to separate prison facilities, away from the others, and placed them in solitary confinement," Israeli human rights group Adalah said in a statement. Israeli forces on Monday intercepted the Madleen sailboat and its 12 crew members in international waters off the besieged Palestinian territory. Israel is to expel by the end of the week four French activists who were on board the Madleen, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Wednesday. The four, who include Hassan, will be deported on Thursday and Friday, the minister said on X. Another four, who are not French, were also taken into custody. The remaining four, including two French citizens and Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg, agreed to be deported immediately after being banned from Israel for 100 years. France 's prime minister on Wednesday accused the French activists who sailed on the Madleen of capitalising on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for political attention. "These activists obtained the effect they wanted, but it's a form of instrumentalisation to which we should not lend ourselves," Prime Minister François Bayrou said in the National Assembly. It's "through diplomatic action, and efforts to bring together several states to pressure the Israeli government, that we can obtain the only possible solution" to the conflict, he added. Watch more Aid ship seized by Israel named after Gaza's only fisherwoman, Madleen Kullab Barrot added that priority in Gaza should be "an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages held by Hamas, as well as immediate, unimpeded and massive humanitarian aid access to abridge the suffering of civilian populations". "In no way whatsoever do the gesticulations of Ms Rima Hassan, her instrumentalisation of the suffering of Gazans, help to achieve these goals," he added. He said the French consul had visited all four French activists in Israeli detention.
