Have you been waiting for the UK Government Environmental Audit Committee Review into Fast Fashion?
Exciting news – it was published this morning!
Where Does It Come From? gave input into the first stages of the review back in September and last week I was in the audience of a discussion between committee chair Mary Creagh MP and broadcaster Lucy Siegle, so the team has been waiting (not so) patiently for the outcome!
The report recommends government focus and law change in the following areas:
– strengthening of the Modern Slavery act to include requirements for larger brands to monitor their whole supply chain (back to the original fibres!) and provide statements – with penalties for those who don’t comply.
– Government to facilitate a culture of designing, creating, and repairing, including making changes to the national education curriculum to include these in key stages 2 and 3.
– Government to push back against the throwaway society – including making brands take responsibility for their garments after they’ve been sold (ie. at end of life) and banning the destroying of unsold stock.
– creating linkages between fashion brands, water companies and washing machine producers to find solutions for our microfibre problem (when tiny bits of plastic come off our clothes during washing and leach into our marine life and food and water)
– Encouraging by taxation those brands that have lower environmental impacts and, for those that use polyester encouraging high proportions of recycled fibres.
Find out more by reading the report at https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmenvaud/1952/report-summary.html
What do you think? Is this the nanny state at work or could it go even further?
by Jo Salter, Founder of Where Does It Come From?
Published February 19, 2019 & Filed in Jo’s Soapbox,Where Does It Come From? Blog