Mr Moderator, 

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have the honour to deliver this statement on behalf of the European Union and its Member States

• Thank you to the organisers for organising today’s International Day of Zero Waste. On this occasion, we welcome the opportunity to reiterate the importance of waste management, in particular to achieve the objectives of the 2030 Agenda and to address the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.

• We believe that the best waste is the waste that is not generated. The top priority in waste policy and legislation should therefore be to prevent waste from being created in the first place, in line with the waste hierarchy. We accordingly stress the importance of upstream measures, including ecodesign, in support of achieving a circular economy. 

• Just last month, the EU agreed on new rules regarding two important waste streams, namely food waste and textile waste. We would like to highlight two aspects in particular.

• First, our new legislation introduces binding food waste reduction targets to be met by the end of the year 2030. These are a 10% reduction target of waste in food processing and manufacturing, and a 30% reduction per capita target in retail, restaurants, food services and households. 

• Second, our new legislation includes harmonised rules on the extended producer responsibility of textile producers. Producers will be made responsible for their waste. Among others, they will be required to pay a fee to help fund waste collection and treatment, which will be dependent on how circular and sustainable the design of their product is. This requirement also addresses the over-generation of textile waste and ultra-fast and fast fashion practices. 

Excellencies,

• Textile waste is not just a European issue. The volume of the global trade in second-hand clothing grew almost sevenfold over the past three decades, to nearly 3.6 million tonnes in 2021[1]. Many recent studies indicate that a significant part of clothing exported for reuse is not reusable and ends up as waste, reinforcing concerns about its fate in destination countries and impact on the environment.

• The EU and its Member States therefore consider it important to discuss the trade in used textiles and textile waste at the upcoming COP17 of the Basel Convention (taking place in Geneva from 28 April to 9 May). We view this as an important opportunity to discuss national experiences, challenges, and ways to address the topic under that convention.

• Finally, we wish to recall the statement of the EU and its Member States of 21 November 2022 that UN General Assembly resolution 77/161 should not lead to any duplication, and does not give a mandate to the UN to create a new work track on zero waste that would be separate from existing UN work on the sustainable management of waste, sustainable consumption and production, and circular economy. 

• I thank you.

[1] unece.org/sites/default/files/2024-12/ECE_TRADE_484E.pdf