Europe 1 with AFP 4:08 p.m., April 3, 2024
It will soon be possible to measure the environmental impact of the clothes we buy. The government plans to implement a clothing eco-score next fall which could become mandatory from 2025.
After the "nutriscore" for food and the "reparability index" for electronic devices and household appliances, it will soon be possible to measure the environmental impact of the clothes we buy, promises the government. A textile environmental label is due to emerge this fall before perhaps being made mandatory in 2025.
The clothing ecoscore will take the form of a score "which can go from zero to infinity" which will take into account "all the environmental costs of the life cycle of a garment" (greenhouse gas emissions , pollution, water consumption, etc.), weighted by the "durability" of the product, linked to its material, the possibility of repairing or maintaining it easily or even the incentive not to renew it too often, announced the Ministry of Ecological Transition on Wednesday during a telephone briefing.
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Allow comparison between clothes
“The lower the rating, the less environmental impact the garment has and therefore the more virtuous it is,” indicated the ministry, which thus wishes to allow consumers “to compare the garments with each other in a simple manner” and thus “make them more responsible for their purchases" without making them feel guilty, the price no longer being "the only criterion of choice" available. A first tool, a calculation simulator intended for brands called “Ecobalyse” is being deployed from this Wednesday to professionals for consultation, according to the ministry.
Once possibly amended, the textile environmental display should be presented in May as part of a decree, before being put into service “in the fall of 2024” on a voluntary basis. Asked about the possibility of eventually making it compulsory, the ministry replied that “yes, it could become compulsory from 2025”.
A project that fell behind schedule
This textile ecoscore, in which "France is a pioneer", must complement the PEF (Product Environmental Footprint) on which the European Union is also working. It will also serve as a basis for calculating the "bonus-malus" of brands within the framework of the future proposed law (PPL) aimed at curbing "fast fashion" and adopted in March by deputies, the ministry specified.
Provided for by the Climate and Resilience law (2021) and implemented following the Citizens' Climate Convention, the clothing ecoscore was originally supposed to be compulsory from this year. But the project had fallen behind schedule, notably due to the reluctance of certain professionals in the textile sector. Many people questioned the consistency of the system and the calculation method. Between a polyester T-shirt (derived from petroleum) produced in China or a wool sweater made in France while consuming a lot of water, which will come out more virtuous?
The idea is "to limit the constraint for brands", a good fifty of which - "from Decathlon, to Sandro via Kiabi or even certain luxury brands" - have already participated in a first consultation in 2022 : they are the ones who will enter the data into the ecoscore calculator based on “elements that they already have, such as the material of the garment, its weight, its country of manufacture or the speed of rotation of the collections”, explains the Ministry. Controls will subsequently be put in place by the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF), as was done for the device repairability index, he added. .