Today’s winter sales perpetuate the questionable practice of liquidating surplus goods in shops, obscuring an environmentally unfriendly reality. Textile retailers dispose of their surplus unsustainably,posing a considerable challenge to the environment.
Textile companies often opt for overproduction as a precaution to ensure they don’t run out of stock to meet demand. This overproduction stems from uncertainties about consumer preferences and demand. To avoid stock-outs and adapt to unforeseen fluctuations in demand, they often manufacture surplus quantities. What’s more, sales strategies such as sales or promotional offers sometimes encourage this overproduction to ensure sufficient supply. Moreover, the economies of scale achieved by mass production also provide an incentive to produce more. These practices lead to the creation of product surpluses, prompting companies to organize sales to sell off these surplus stocks.
This Wednesday, January 10, saw the start of the long-awaited 2024 winter sales across France. This is an opportunity for large and small textile retailers alike to destock a selection of their unsold items at profitable discounts, much to the delight of households.
However, this approach is far from environmentally friendly. Fashion giants have a habit of destroying surplus products by burning them annually. This is the case of H&M, which was singled out in 2017 for burning nearly 12 tons of clothing a year.
Fast fashion has adetrimental detrimental impact on the environment due to its large-scale production and rapid consumption model, generating massive textile waste and contributing to the exploitation of natural resources. In the course of a year, 100 billion items of clothing are bought during sales and 400 billion end up being thrown away, generating around 300 million m3 of water per year.
The new system came into force on January 1, 2022, the lAGEC law(Anti-Waste for a Circular Economy) which prohibits the dissolution of non-food waste. Added to, this is the European Union’s announcement on December 5, 2023 that it will prohibit the destruction of all unsold new clothing. According to a recent ADEME study (Agency for Ecological Transition),this action represents 10,000 to 20,000 tonnes every year in France. Also, the January 2023 sales resulted in 3.8 million tonnes of CO2, equivalent to the emissions of 1.3 million cars over the course of a year.
Rethinking Sales and the Textile Industry
In these circumstances, sales seem to be a possible way out to avoid overcrowding. However, according to Yann RIVOALLAN, President of the Fédération Française du Prêt-à-Porter féminin, this point is disputed. In his view, with the arrival of ultra-fast-fashion and fictitious promotions throughout the year, sales are becoming less and less attractive. Resellers such as Chinese giant SHEIN are destabilizing the industry and creating unsold stock. In fact, sales have been declining in popularity for some years now: the CCI (Chambre de Commerce et de l’Industrie) estimates that footfall has dropped by 31% and the average shopping basket by 23%.
According to Yann Rivoallan, stock orders are based on sales assumptions, which makes it difficult to accurately estimate sales for each item. Losses are expected as a result of this uncertainty. Although balances partially alleviate this situation, they are no longer sufficient. Rivoallan suggests favoring other forms of promotions, such as those adopted by brands like Sézane, which reduce prices only on specific items that are hard to sell because of their originality or size, although this remains a rare practice. It also mentions the existence of targeted promotions, for example through newsletters.
From a global point of view, the AGEC law plans to rethink the entire structure of the textile industry, which remains one of the world’s most polluting due to the resources employed in manufacturing, logistics and the products used. The latter requires ready-to-wear players to conform to demand, implement new inventory management or drastically reduce production.
The president of the French PAP Federation corroborates his vision of producing little upstream and adding stock as demand grows.
L’objectif à long terme est de réduire la surconsommation, car l’achat de vêtements, qu’ils soient soldés ou non, a un impact négatif sur l’environnement.
Recycling end-of-series products: Legal impact and the circular economy
The law provides for solutions to revive end-of-series production , since eliminating surplus demand in its entirety requires aperfect mastery of inventory management that is not yet possible.
The European Union encourages the creation of sustainable, repairable clothing to promote recycling. Companies are encouraged to sell their surplus to second-hand stores or destockers, thus promoting the circular economy. Another approach, in line with the AGEC Act, is to make donations. A number of associations are fighting against precariousness by recovering clothing and redistributing it to people in need. For example, the he partnership between Ba&sh and Emmaüs mentioned by Yann Rivoallan is an illustration of this approach, combining environmental and social benefits.
All in all, we can deduce that sales, an inescapable commercial tradition, have a considerable impact on our environment through an increase in textile waste. However, by embracing the principles of the circular economy, we can reverse this damaging trend. By encouraging reuse, thehrough the repair and reuse of clothing items, this sustainable approach opposes the culture of unbridled consumerism, offering a more responsible alternative. By limiting waste and extending the life of garments, the circular economy aims to reduce the ecological footprint of the fashion industry, encouraging more environmentally-friendly consumption.
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