Sew on time: France will help pay for clothes to be mended to reduce waste

A broken heel, torn pants, missing buttons on a shirt? Don't throw them away if you live in France, where the government will pay a "repair bonus" to have them repaired under a new program to reduce waste.

An estimated 700,000 tons of clothing are thrown away each year in France, two-thirds of which end up in landfill.

As of October, citizens will be able to claim between 6 € and € 25% of the cost of mending clothes and shoes in workshops or at cobblers adhering to the scheme.

Bérangère Couillard, Secretary of State for ecology, announced the financial incentives during a visit to a responsible fashion hub in Paris. The repair premium will be paid from a 154 million euro fund the government has set aside for the next five years, she said.

She has invited all sewing workshops and shoemakers to join the programme, which will be carried out by the eco-organization Refashion. "The goal is to support those doing repairs," Couillard said during the visit. This would encourage workshops and retailers to offer repair services with "the hope of recreating jobs".

More than 100 billion textiles - the term covers clothing , shoes and linens - are sold around the world every year. In France, this amounts to approximately 10.5 kg per year per person.

Refashion aims to encourage people not only to repair and reuse, but also to reduce the amount textiles they buy and donate those they no longer want. It states that approximately 56% of donations can be reused and 32% can be recycled into something new.

The repair bonus program is part of a campaign from the end of last year, to reform the textile industry, one of the most polluting on the planet, and to fight against what is called fast fashion.

Clothing and textile stores must also label items with the material used and the country where they were produced and manufactured.

Measures to to encourage consumers to repair, reuse and recycle clothing follow a similar program offering bonuses to those who have household appliances repaired.

In 2020, France adopted a law aimed at modifying the production methods and consumption habits of household goods in order to reduce waste, conserve natural resources and limit damage to biodiversity while facing the climate crisis.

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The legislation takes the form of a six-year plan that began with an education and information campaign outlining targets for reducing, reusing and recycling products, including targets to eliminate plastics for single use. New measures are introduced every year as part of the legislation.

By 2022, public buildings, including stations, hospitals and schools, were required to install a drinking fountain at the beginning of this year restaurants with more than 20 seats and fast food establishments were banned from using disposable cutlery, plates and cups for meals eaten on the premises.

France in 2016 banned supermarkets from destroying unsold food instead of giving it away for redistribution.

Companies are now also required to be more open about the planned obsolescence of the goods they produce and to encourage the publication of a "repairability index" to detail the ease or difficulty with which a product could be repaired.