France's new Bonus Réparation reimburses those who choose clothing repair

With the aim of reducing waste and the worrying situation of French landfills, where some 700,000 tonnes of clothes end up each year, State Ecology Minister Bérangère Couillard has set up a programme that from next October will incentivise citizens and shops to clothing items repair. The Bonus Réparation will allow those who use the services of a shoemaker or tailor to recoup up to 25 euros on their spending, adding, together with the recent ban on plastic bags and single-use packaging in supermarkets, to the initiatives to support the anti-waste law introduced in France in 2020. 

To publicise Bonus Réparation an informative advertisement on waste reduction, recycling and reuse has been launched, and for the debut of this initiative the government allocated a 154 million euro fund, which will be distributed over the next five years. To join Bonus Réparation, shoemakers and tailors will be able to access the Refashion platform, created with the aim of making the textile economy more sustainable, and obtain a sticker to signal their adherence to the project. For now, the value of a refund for repairing shoe heels, 7 euros, and for that of a zip, up to 8 euros, have been announced. According to the director of the company Refashion, which, according to its motto, has the ambitious goal of making the French textile economy 100% circular, this bonus represents a considerable effort to raise consumer awareness around responsible fashion. «To meet the challenge of the climate emergency, the entire sector has put and will have to put in place a series of large-scale actions: the bonus is one of them,» Maud Hardy explained to Repubblica. «Raising consumer awareness of the need for more responsible fashion, avoiding waste, taking better care of clothes and restoring the prestige of the act of repair are undeniably the building blocks for building a road to more responsible consumption.»