EU throws out 60m tonnes of food every year as parts of the world starve
Ireland South MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú has welcomed a vote in the European Parliament today which will bring in new laws to obligate member states, including Ireland, to reduce food waste but also tackle fast fashion waste.
Ní Mhurchú has described it as bordering on criminal that we waste so much perfectly good food in the EU, whilst children in other parts of the world die from hunger and malnutrition.
Every year, 60 million tonnes of food waste and 12.6 million tonnes of clothes are binned in the EU. In Ireland, the average household wastes approximately €700 worth of food annually according to the EPA.
The EU Waste Framework Directive was updated today and will now require member states to reduce food waste by a further 10% in processing and manufacturing by 2030, and by 30% by 2030 (per capita), jointly at retail and consumption levels, compared to the amounts generated in 2020.
Welcoming the passing of the updated directive in the European Parliament, Ní Mhurchú said,
“Shopping with purpose and buying only the amount you need of perishable food before it goes off, is a simple exercise, we can all adopt.”
The EU Waste Framework Directive also tackles fast fashion and clothes waste by requiring clothes manufacturers who supply the EU to cover the cost of schemes to manage the collection, sorting and recycling of waste clothes. These are called Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes for textiles.
Ní Mhurchú singled out Depop and Clothes Pod as online platforms that recycle clothes in a fun way. She also encouraged people to recycle clothes at their local charity shop or clothes bank citing the positive impact this can have on communities across Ireland as we grapple with a cost of living crisis.
Under the new rules voted through the European Parliament today manufacturers will have 30 months to implement the EPR schemes for clothes whilst micro enterprises will have 42 months to implement the schemes.
The legislation makes specific recommendations that member states should do everything possible to facilitate the safe distribution of food waste to charities and charity food distributors.
Clothing and footwear alone account for 5.2 million tonnes of waste, equivalent to 12 kg of waste per person every year in the EU. It is estimated that less than 1% of all textiles worldwide are recycled into new products.
ENDS
Link to the European Parliament.
