Winter goods in lockdown: "Destroying is the much cheaper choice"

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Time is running out.

The closer spring approaches, the more difficult it becomes for Germany's fashion and shoe retailers to sell their winter goods.

Hundreds of millions of jackets and sweaters, scarves and hats or boots and boots are still in stores and warehouses, as the textile trade association BTE reports.

After all, the shops have been forcibly closed for several weeks.

Online trading is booming.

However, Internet sales cannot fully compensate for shop closings, as dealers report.

And the spring and summer collections have long been pushing into the shops.

So what to do with the winter goods?

There are basically four options, according to the industry.

First, clothes and shoes are put into storage so that they can be sold again next winter.

The necessary storage space is expensive, however, and the dealers' liquidity is already ailing after the crisis year 2020.

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Second, the goods can be delivered to outlets and junk dealers.

Then, however, it remains on the market and now or later becomes a competing product for the selling provider.

Option three are donations.

And fourth, the goods can be destroyed, for example they would end up in the incinerator.

An alliance of the Greens, Paritätischem Wohlfahrtsverband and Handelsverband Deutschland (HDE) has now started a new discussion about giving away and burning.

Stock items for a good cause?

"Donate instead of destroying - stock items for a good cause" is the name of the initiative of the three partners.

Because what sounds like a logical course of action cannot be taken for granted for a long time.

"The trade is in a dilemma," says HDE Managing Director Stefan Genth, "currently the much cheaper choice than a donation is to destroy."

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The reason for this is tax law.

Thereafter, a donation, like the sale of goods, is generally subject to sales tax, which has been 19 percent since the beginning of the year.

And as a result, according to the HDE, the amount then due is often higher than the cost of destruction, which is estimated at 100 to 200 euros per ton.

Ulrich Schneider is stunned.

"If tax law punishes those who want to donate clothes compared to those who simply shred them, then something is wrong with tax law," complains the chief executive of the Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband.

“That is decadent.

The throwaway society would have reached a new level. "

The Greens are now targeting the Federal Finance Minister from the SPD.

"Mr. Scholz has it in his hand," says Katrin Göring-Eckardt, the chairwoman of the Green parliamentary group.

"The obvious miscalculation could be corrected with little effort." All that is needed is an administrative instruction within the framework of the next Corona tax aid law.

"We cannot burn masses of clothes ad hoc"

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And apparently there is also movement in the Treasury.

In any case, HDE boss Genth reports on a draft by the tax authorities for a so-called equity regulation.

This initially provides for a tax exemption until the end of 2021.

That is to be welcomed, says Genth, "but we also need long-term legal certainty".

There is also such a thing for food retailers.

And in fact, supermarkets and discounters can donate goods in kind without tax disadvantages, for example to the food banks, where people in need are supplied with food, among other things: "We also need this for the non-food sector - and quickly and with legal certainty."

Because the problem with winter goods increases with each additional day in lockdown and at the same time increasing temperatures.

However, there is still no trend towards waste incineration.

"Our companies are currently only receiving a few inquiries," says Carsten Spohn, the managing director of the interest group for thermal waste treatment plants in Germany (ITAD).

And that seems to suit the operators right now.

The utilization of around 100 waste incineration and substitute fuel plants across Germany is comparatively high these days, as more and more household and hygienic waste are being delivered due to the crisis.

"We couldn't burn a lot of clothes ad-hoc," explains Spohn in an interview with WELT.

In the end, the dealers and manufacturers would have to decide

Stretched out over weeks and months, on the other hand, clothing is quite suitable as an addition to the garbage mixture.

That already happens.

“Bad batches always end up with our members,” says Spohn.

Sometimes trademark law also plays a role.

In the end, however, it is always the dealers and manufacturers who have to decide.

“We are only the service provider.” The responsibility for what happens to excess goods lies with the owners of the products.

"Whereby burning should always be the last option for new goods," explains Spohn.

Nevertheless, it happens a lot, as the environmental organization Greenpeace reports again and again.

Even before Corona, which made the situation even worse.

The fashion industry itself remains silent on this issue.

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The Association of Waste Producers and Owners from Crafts and Trade (VAHH) is now trying to provide additional solutions.

The organization, which was founded in December, mainly represents small and medium-sized companies and supports them in legally compliant waste disposal.

"Quite a few companies are currently completely overwhelmed"

So that excess clothing is not degraded to waste and thus ends up in the waste incineration, the VAHH has developed a platform solution through which the resale of excess goods can be processed.

"EasyVO" is the name of the digital marketplace that is due to go live at the end of February and whose name is made up of the English word for "simple" and the official abbreviation for "regulation".

“There, companies can trade unsalable goods and sell them to third countries, but they can also find solutions for recycling clothing or for disposal,” explains VAHH managing director Sven Saborosch.

Every process is fully documented.

“This means that companies act in a legally secure manner.” Small companies in particular often do not know every single legal requirement in detail.

"A number of companies are currently completely overwhelmed by the constantly changing legislation," reports Saborosch.

The model for the VAHH, behind which both chambers of trade and guilds stand, is the sister organization VERE, the association for the return and recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment, which now has almost 4,000 members.

The VERE platform is called “Take-e-Way”.

In addition, the disposal of old devices is organized in accordance with the provisions of the Electrical and Electronic Equipment Act, Battery Act and Packaging Act, among others.

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