As of 19 July, the EU has made it illegal for large fashion companies to destroy unsold clothes, accessories, and shoes. Under the Ecodesign regulation, brands now have to resell, discount, donate, or repair stock first, and can only scrap items that are unsafe, counterfeit, or genuinely unwanted, with paperwork to prove it.
The catch:
- The EEA estimates 4 to 9 percent of textiles put on the EU market are destroyed before use: 264,000 to 594,000 tonnes a year.
- Burberry once admitted burning 28.6 million pounds' worth of stock in a single year.
- France banned the practice nationally back in 2022; the EU is now catching up.
- Small and micro firms are exempt, which critics fear big brands could route stock through.
- It bans the bonfire, not the overproduction that fills it.
Real change depends on enforcement, not the headline.
