Dear reader,
Today we are revelling in rubbish.
Not just because Brussels strikes (solidarité ! ✊) have left our streets strewn with more litter than usual. We’re also in the throes of a weird waste-Bermuda Triangle where European Week for Waste Reduction coincides with Black Friday’s wave of hyper-consumerism (don’t get us started on the fact that it’s Resource Justice Film Week too!). Living such paradoxes is the environmental movement’s bread and butter, so we’re sure you’ll have no trouble digesting this week’s updates.
In the face of deregulation and democratic backsliding, this week sees at last some glimmers of hope with the Ombudswoman crying foul, and a mass walkout on the Scrutiny Working Group’s first day of work.
We’ll cover:
- Textile waste and tips to tackle it
- The EU Parliament’s scrutiny not-working group
- Omnibus twists and turns
- Bioeconomy strategy blues
- The meat and dairy ads funded by taxpayers
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👠 LIVING IN A MATERIAL WORLD
Sew it begins – As Europe marks the European Week for Waste Reduction – and Black Friday’s surge in overconsumption begins – the textile industry stands out as a major driver of pollution, waste, and exploitation.
Tonnes of trouble – Since 2000, global fibre production has doubled, and the EU now generates 12.6 million tonnes of textile waste each year (that’s 16kg, or a suitcase, per person!), most of it ending up in landfills or incinerators.
Fashion police, where are you? And just when we thought ultra-fast fashion couldn’t get any faster, Shein opened in France last week – despite loud protests from high-street shops and campaigners alike. Add a wave of deregulation putting tried-and-tested environmental protections at risk, and it’s clear the system needs a serious makeover.
Dress for less stress – Until then, our New Leaf article lays out practical ways to dodge the textile industry’s traps – from simply buying less (the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation’s Max 5 challenge dares you to cap purchases at five new garments a year) to getting savvy about what’s in our clothes (the Buy Responsibly Foundation is helping people understand the chemical cocktails hiding in textiles and offering easy tips to reduce exposure.)
A little wardrobe wisdom goes a long way for our closets, our communities, and the planet.
❌ SCRAP THAT
A sinking feeling – Ever heard of shipbreaking? Or wondered what happens when a cruise ship, oil tanker or cargo giant reaches the end of the line? Just like the goods they carry, ships become waste too. And quite a lot of it, as you can imagine. But only a tiny fraction is recycled safely. Most of the world’s end-of-life fleet, often packed with toxic substances, is still dismantled by hand on the beaches of South Asia, where minimal enforcement allows shipping companies to cut costs at the expense of workers and ecosystems.
Not a safe harbour – And the problem isn’t confined to distant shores. Serious labour and environmental abuses have been uncovered in EU-approved ship-recycling yards in Turkey. Together with the NGO Shipbreaking Platform and a broad Turkish coalition, we’re calling on the EU to revoke approvals for facilities that breach ship-recycling laws. No more dangerous double standards.
IN THE BRUSSELS BUBBLE 🫧
🎭 THE EU’S SCRUTINY NOT-WORKING GROUP
A scrutiny committee built on sand was never going to stand.
Stage set for spectacle – As the Parliament’s new scrutiny working group on NGO funding held its first meeting this week, it didn’t take long for the point to become clear. This process is shaping up to be far more political theatre than transparency.
Exit stage left – MEPs from S&D, Renew, and the Greens walked out almost immediately, calling it a witch hunt and arguing that the NGO-only setup was never going to offer a balanced view of EU spending. The mood in the room felt less like democratic oversight and more like an awkward audition for a problem that doesn’t actually exist.
A solution still searching for a problem – The working group was born from long-debunked claims that environmental NGOs were somehow “lobbying on behalf of the Commission”. Yet rather than moving on, a conservative and far-right bloc has pushed for a parallel process that duplicates the Parliament’s existing budget discharge system – one that already scrutinises EU funding (yes, also NGO funding).
Let’s scrutinise everyone! Civil society helped build Europe’s transparency rules. We don’t shy away from scrutiny. But selectively applying it only to those fighting for the public interest sets a worrying precedent. Let it be known: public funding for NGOs is a democratic safeguard. It brings independent expertise into policymaking, strengthens participation, and ensures governments and corporations are held to account.
Here we go… This chaotic debut doesn’t bode well for the group’s work – nor, as we already knew, for the time, energy and resources we are going to have to waste on it. Which might be the intention in the first place…
👀 OMNIBUS WATCH
Om…g: Ombudswoman slams Omnibus process
Europe’s referee – As seemingly the last sane person in the EU capital, the European Ombudswoman reminds the Commission that it is not above the law. This week, the EU’s watchdog concluded that the Commission committed maladministration by using “urgency” arguments to push through the due diligence rules-gutting Omnibus I and the CAP rollback.
Bypassing its own rulebook – The inquiry, triggered by three related complaints, concluded that the Commission breached its own Better Regulation rules by bypassing basic procedural safeguards. It rushed proposals without impact assessments, failed to consult the public or civil society as required by the Treaties, and did not justify why the measures were “urgent.” It also ignored legally binding EU climate objectives.
Urgency needs rules too – To avoid similar future scenarios, the Ombudswoman called on the Commission to clearly define what counts as “urgent” and to establish a participatory protocol, ensuring a “transparent, evidence-based and inclusive law-making process.”
Hope-bringer – The finding contains a glimmer of hope for NGOs, civil society and businesses who have been sounding the alarm bells over the Commission’s rushed rollbacks and carries significant implications for omnibuses to come and the entire simplification agenda.
The Ombudswoman effect? The Commission seems to have lost its grip on its own environmental Omnibus. Commissioner Dombrovskis has now publicly floated a “stop the clock” pause – a move aimed at delaying the package long enough to add the Nature Restoration Law (NRL) and the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD) to the list of laws on the chopping block. Meanwhile, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen appears to resist the push – and the Commission’s tentative agenda still has the Omnibus pencilled in for release next week. For now…
But with internal tensions rising – and the Ombudswoman’s findings landing at a sensitive moment – that deadline is looking less likely by the hour.
Water resilience or watered-down rules? A new report by the Living Rivers Europe coalition, Industry’s role in water resilience: How some lead – and others wreck, lifts the lid on how a number of powerful industry actors across the agriculture, energy, mining and chemicals sectors are lobbying the Commission to water down vital rules to protect our water in Europe through the upcoming environmental omnibus.
Not all companies muddy the waters – Happily, it also spotlights the frontrunners, those companies – from finance and insurance sectors – who are recognising climate and water-related risks and announcing pledges to invest in nature-based solutions to mitigate them.
♻️ BIOECONOMY BLUES
Green veneer – The new Bioeconomy Strategy released this week by the Commission is a big missed opportunity to promote system change and has been watered down since it was leaked in October, revealing yet again a race to the bottom from the Commission.
Brown reality – Instead of setting out a strategy to confront Europe’s excessive resource demand, the Commission clings to the illusion that we can simply replace current consumption with bio-based inputs, overlooking the serious and immediate harm this will inflict on people and nature.
👉 YOUR AD HERE! 👈
Reading the fine print – EU taxpayers are footing the bill for a multi-year ad campaign that overstates the environmental virtues of meat and dairy while pushing some truly odd claims.
Spin it till you win it – A new investigation by DeSmog finds that since 2017, the Commission’s Enjoy, it’s from Europe! programme has poured €1.5 billion – 80% of which is funded by the Common Agricultural Policy – into global marketing campaigns to promote everything from olive oil to prosciutto, especially to younger audiences online. While the scheme claims to promote the “authenticity, safety, sustainability and quality” of EU products, many of its sustainability claims are misleading or simply untrue, sparking calls in Brussels for an urgent review. Check it out.
💸 PEOPLE OVER PROFIT
Mining for trouble – This week, the European Investment Bank launched a major €2 billion-a-year Critical Raw Materials (CRM) Strategic Initiative, marking a dramatic return to mining finance after a decade-long pause over poor human rights and environmental records. Yet the broader context is troubling. CRM projects are still being pushed through with weak safeguards, opaque assessments and side-lined communities, many in water-stressed regions or countries with fragile governance. The EEB joins 23 civil society groups to warn that funding must not go ahead without strong safeguards, transparency and meaningful participation.
🧠 ✨ DOPAMINE HIT
- A California Indian nation celebrated the return of 17,000 acres of ancestral lands by releasing several of the region’s native Tule elk to roam the hills again for the first time in decades. Read more here
- How young rewilders transformed a farm – and began a movement. Read more here.
- Native title for about 915,000 ha of Cape York has been returned to the Indigenous owners after 250 years. Read more here
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By: Ruby Silk. Special thanks to the EEB’s editorial team: Roi Gomez, Ben Snelson and Alberto Vela Editor: Christian Skrivervik.
