A potential limited tax on fast fashion has been rejected by the Government, despite the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) accusing it of vacillating and failing to take to kerb waste and place responsibility on retailers for the waste they produce.

The EAC had proposed a range of initiatives to alleviate issues in the fashion sector, including charging fashion producers 1p per garment to go toward clothing collection and recycling, but the Government refused to endorse these measures, in part because it says it already has measures in outline about to be introduced, including the HMRC and other enforcement agencies taking more proactive approach to National Minimum Wage enforcement.

EAC chair Mary Creagh MP said: “Fashion producers should be forced to clear up the mountains of waste they create. The Government is out of step with the public who are shocked by the fact that we are sending 300,000 tonnes of clothes a year to incineration or landfill. Ministers have failed to recognise that urgent action must be taken to change the fast fashion business model which produces cheap clothes that cost the earth.”

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