Details of the Initiative
To promote environmentally conscious economic activities, the European Council approved the proposals for ecodesign regulation and enacted it on May 27, 2024. The ecodesign regulation was originally implemented to make sustainable products, such as household appliances, with the EU standard. The regulation is now extended and requires environmentally friendly ecodesign for clothing. With the growth of fast fashion, the EU countries are the world’s largest consumer market for clothing, while also disposing of large quantities of used clothing as well as unsold, unused clothing. The regulation prohibits the disposal of unused clothing and footwear products as part of extended producer responsibility and seeks to stop overproduction of products. Fast fashion companies brought about not only mass production and mass consumption but also mass disposal. The EU has begun to tackle this problem in earnest, and the ecodesign regulation is reflecting it. This also applies to Japanese companies operating in European markets, as it will require garment manufacturers to review their strategies. For further information on the development of the ecodesign regulation, please refer to the following papers. https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jmhr/3/1/3_50/_article/-char/ja
