By Sean Poulter for the Daily Mail
Published: 00:10 GMT, 19 February 2019 | Updated: 00:14 GMT, 19 February 2019
View
comments
MPs are demanding a ‘fast fashion’ tax on throwaway clothes to help deal with waste generated by the industry.
The charge would amount to 1p per item and would fund the collection and recycling of the £140million worth of clothes discarded by Britons every year.
Experts estimate the levy could raise £35million a year towards the cost of dealing with this vast mountain of fast fashion waste.
The call comes from MPs across all parties on the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC), who are also urging schools to teach children how to make and repair clothes in a return to the ‘make do and mend’ approach.
The Daily Mail's Great British Spring Clean campaign is encouraging a nationwide litter-pick to rid the UK of discarded rubbish (pictured in Wales). Now, MPs are demanding a 'fast fashion' tax on throwaway clothes
Most of the 430,000 tons of old clothes which are thrown away annually are put into landfill sites such as this one in Dorset
The MPs say the tax system should be reformed to reward companies offering clothing repairs and using sustainable materials such as wool.
Britons buy around 1.1million tons of new clothing each year – equating to 26.7kg per person – in a fast fashion culture fuelled by online retails such as Boohoo and ASOS, which sell dresses for as little as £5.
Around 430,000 tons is thrown in household bins, most of which goes to landfill, while many fast fashion items – from socks to dresses – are made from plastic and shed billions of polluting particles into sewers, rivers and seas when washed.
The Daily Mail has led the way in highlighting the scourge of global
