The UK Government has rejected all of the recommendations from MPs on the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) to clean up the huge environmental impact of fast fashion.

One of the suggestions was the charge of 1p per garment to urgently raise £35m a year for improved clothing collection and recycling. The proposal was supported by over two thirds of fashion brands surveyed by Drapers.

The government’s response, published on Tuesday the 18th June, failed to commit to any of the recommendations, stating only that it could revisit the issue by 2025.

We strongly disagree with the Government evaluation and want to appeal its decision. We demand the 1p charge to be accepted. Its implementation will not drastically affect citizens and the price of products but could be a crucial step in starting to improve current destructive practices of the fashion industry. Please sign this petition and help us make the fashion industry more sustainable!

You can read the full Government response to the Committee’s Report here.

Other Fixing Fashion Report’s key recommendations included:

• A new Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme to reduce textile waste with a one penny charge per garment on producers.
• Ban on incinerating or landfilling unsold stock that can be reused or recycled.
• Mandatory environmental targets for fashion retailers with a turnover above £36 million.
• The fashion industry must come together to set out their blueprint for a net zero emissions world, reducing their carbon consumption back to 1990 levels.
• The scheme should reward fashion companies that design products with lower environmental impacts and penalise those that do not.
• The report calls on the Government to use the tax system to shift the balance of incentives in favour of reuse, repair and recycling to support responsible fashion companies.
• The Government should follow Sweden's lead and reduce VAT on repair services.
• More proactive approach to enforcement of the National Minimum Wage with greater resourcing for HMRC’s National Minimum Wage team to increase inspection and detection work.
• The Government should publish a publicly accessible list of retailers required to release a modern slavery statement. This should be supported by an appropriate penalty for those companies who fail to report and comply with the Modern Slavery Act.

Source: www.parliament.uk

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