EU’s Waste Revolution: Billions in Opportunities

The Representatives of  European Union member states and the European Parliament on  Wednesday agreed on new rules to reduce food and textile waste.

Waste generated during food processing and manufacturing would be cut by 10 percent by 2030, and waste from retail, restaurants, food services, and households would be cut by 30 percent.

According to the negotiators, these are the first EU-wide reduction targets for food waste.

The new rules are also to incentivize donations of unsold but safe food.

Polish EU lawmaker Anna Zalewska, who led the negotiations for the European Parliament, said, “We succeeded in ensuring feasible and realistic provisions for member states to implement food waste reduction policies.

“We also set up the legal framework to ensure that producers contribute to the effective separate collection of textiles they produce.”

She said to tackle textile waste, producers are to cover the costs of collecting, sorting, and recycling.

According to her, this is to include companies “using e-commerce tools and irrespective of whether they are established in an EU country or outside the EU.”

Textiles targeted by the new rules include clothing, accessories, footwear, blankets, bed and kitchen linen, curtains, hats, and mattresses.

“Over 59 million tonnes of food waste are generated in the EU each year, representing an estimated loss of 132 billion euros,” a press release said.

“The EU also generates 12.6 million tonnes of waste textile per year.

“Clothing and footwear alone account for 5.2 million tonnes of waste, equivalent to 12 kg of waste per person every year.”

The deal still needed to be endorsed by EU ministers and the EU parliament, which is considered a formality. (dpa/NAN)