Fashion for Good joins Circle Economy on new green initiative – News : Industry (#1095309)

The European Union warned consumers to stop using their clothes like throwaway items and said on Wednesday that it plans to counter the polluting use of mass-market fast fashion.  New rules proposed by the EU’s executive arm call for a mandatory minimum use of recycled fibres by 2030 and would ban the destruction of many unsold products.  The European Commission rules also seek to contain the release of microplastics and improve global labour conditions in the garment industry.  “We want sustainable products to become the norm,” commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said.  “The clothes we wear should last longer than three washes.”

Jan Huitema is a Dutch politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from the Netherlands since July 2014. He is a member of the People Party for Freedom and Democracy, part of Renew Europe. He was re-elected in 2019. During his first term from 2014 until 2019, Huitema was a member of the AGRI Committee, where he served as rapporteur on fertiliser products and water reuse. During his first term he worked on a change in the definition of animal manure and prevention of the patenting of plant-properties. In 2019, he joined the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety.

Researchers from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) say they have demonstrated a technology that rapidly detects pollutants in water by measuring their impacts on swimming microorganisms. Their proof-of-concept, published in Scientific Reports, does not require any chemicals, reagents or laboratory equipment. Instead, it leverages the regular camera of a smartphone as well as microorganisms called Paramecia that are ubiquitous in water bodies–making it especially suitable for assessing water drinkability in underdeveloped regions.