00:01Quality in every detail.
00:03Olymp, in the north of Stuttgart, produces quality men's shirts.
00:08Its annual revenue is 200 million euros.
00:11We put in quite a bit of work to restore returned merchandise,
00:16even if it's no longer in its original packaging,
00:19to a reasonable condition by refurbishing or repairing the clothes,
00:23so that we can get it back on the market.
00:26Their products are too expensive to throw away when returned,
00:30so the company has been complying with the EU's new ban on destroying returned clothes.
00:36It wants to ensure unsold clothing isn't thrown away.
00:40But that means more bureaucracy for the company.
00:44As a first step, more will be documented,
00:47but I doubt whether less will actually be destroyed at the end of the day.
00:52The new EU rules mean large textile companies need to document how much they destroy,
00:58why they do so, and the amount of goods they dispose of.
01:02It's completely unclear how the EU will monitor compliance.
01:06In Germany, the federal government wants to pass that responsibility to the state government,
01:11and that could mean different enforcement measures and fines.
01:16Up to 600,000 metric tons of brand new unused textiles are destroyed each year in the European Union,
01:24according to the European Environment Agency.
01:27That's roughly the equivalent of 25,000 fully loaded trucks, bumper to bumper, stretching 500 kilometers.
01:36Ultra-cheap, low-quality items, commonly known as fast fashion, are flooding the European market.
01:43The EU estimates that around 1 in 10 textile products sold is ultimately destroyed without ever having been worn.
01:51The NGO German Environmental Action believes the true figure is even higher.
01:55The quality of the material on the market in large quantities is so bad that it's not worth recycling.
02:03He too is skeptical about the new EU regulation.
02:08As long as textiles remain so cheap, I don't think this law will have an impact.
02:14Swift action is needed to tackle the problem of textile waste, but Brussels is struggling to make headway with its
02:21rules.
02:22Some companies have other solutions, like WKS.
02:26It recycles textiles in a way that makes financial sense.
02:31The law is providing some support for what we have been doing for over 60 years, repairing new goods and
02:37ensuring quality.
02:38Often, fast fashion can't be recycled.
02:41This can't be fixed.
02:43There are large holes, and the entire filling is already coming out.
02:48In that case, we call it next best use, so either recycling or disposal.
02:56Altex specializes in recovering and recycling textile materials.
03:01Textile waste is reprocessed to be reintroduced into production.
03:06We could expand our capacity.
03:08The only problem is, what do we do with the finished fibers?
03:13Getting returned clothing ready for resale is a costly option for retailers of low-quality textiles.
03:20In many cases, it's cheaper to destroy the merchandise.
03:23If the new rules from Brussels put an end to the destruction of goods in the EU, the problem won't
03:28disappear.
03:29It'll merely be moved elsewhere.
03:32At best, the waste that comes in is collected and sorted, and everything that can't be reused or recycled is
03:40sold all over the world.
03:42The ban on disposal doesn't make things any better.
03:46Fashion today, trash tomorrow.
03:49Brussels has made reducing textile waste a priority.
03:52We need to pay attention during the implementation to ensure that companies do not exploit the loopholes to circumvent the
04:00ban.
04:01Ultimately, textile waste can only be cut drastically by imposing higher tariffs on low-quality cheap goods.
04:08As of July, the EU has charged a three-euro customs duty on every shipment worth less than 150 euros
04:16from outside the block.
04:19We are seeing a real impact. The flood of parcels is beginning to subside. We need to keep moving in
04:25this direction.
04:26Experts say the EU ban on destroying unsold new textiles still allows too many exceptions.
04:32And compliance is hard to monitor. It seems Brussels will have to make further adjustments.
04:37For the EU ban on for 2,000 years.
04:37To support all of these, we have been connected to the EU ban on the fire station.
04:38The EU ban on for 3,500 years.
