Switzerland Today
Greetings from Lausanne!
In a wealthy country like Switzerland, it’s not uncommon for people to throw away half-decent clothes to buy new items. But what actually happens to all the clothes we discard? An interesting reportage looks at who is collecting and selling second-hand clothes and where they finally end up – and the environmental impact of this huge business.
But first, here are the latest news from Switzerland on Monday, November 14, 2022.
In the news: Billie Jean King Cup winners, Alzheimer research and wolf attacks.
- Switzerland have won the biggest prize in women’s team tennis (see photo above) for the first time after Belinda Bencic completed a near-perfect tournament by beating Australia’s Alja Tomljanovic in straight sets in the final of the Billie Jean King Cup.
- A more equitable naturalisation process and better information on organ donations were two key demands of the Youth Session of the Swiss parliament, which ended on Sunday.
- The Swiss pharmaceutical giant Rochesays its Alzheimer’sdrugcandidate could not clearly be shown to slow dementia progression in two drug trials.
- The number of deadly attacks on livestock bywolves has risen sharply in Switzerland in recent years and is expected to surpass 1,000 this year, says a Swiss wildlife group.
- Last year 11,315 penalties and punitive measures were enforced in Switzerland. Of these, 86% concerned men and 43% involved Swiss nationals.
Switzerland slips down Climate Change Performance Index.
Every year the climate performances of around 60 countries that are responsible for over 90% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide are analysed and presented in the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI). This year, as the United Nations climate summit in Egypt, COP27, enters its second week, there was bad news for Switzerland: it dropped down the ranking from 15th place to 22nd.
“Switzerland is no longer among the CCPI high performers and now ranks medium overall,” said the indexExternal link, published on today.
The Alpine nation received a medium rating for all four main CCPI categories: greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy, energy use, and climate policy.
“Switzerland needs to improve its policies and that while it is part of the Paris Agreement, implementation is still missing,” the index concluded.
This year Switzerland ranks behind Lithuania, Egypt and the EU average. Denmark was first.
The fact that Swiss voters had last year rejected the CO2 law for regulating emissions was instrumental in it dropping out of the top 20, according to Greenpeace climate expert Georg Klingler, one of 450 international experts who contributed to the report.
However, recent efforts by Swiss politicians, such as the counterproposal to the glacier initiative or measures for more renewable energies, were not included in the assessment, he noted.
The report adds to recent international criticismof Swiss environmental policy. “Switzerland is paying poorer nations to cut emissions on its behalf”, was the headline in the New York TimesExternal link on November 7. The article accused the wealthy Alpine country of relying on carbon-offsetting projects in poorer countries to help cut its CO2 emissions. This was denied by Switzerland’s top climate negotiator Franz Perrez.
The environmental impact of the second-hand clothing trade.
Around 65,000 tonnes of old clothes are thrown out and collected every year in Switzerland. This second-hand trade has become a lucrative business for firms that recover, collect, sort and export these clothes abroad. Many of the clothes travel thousandsExternal link of kilometres to markets in places like Afghanistan or Moldova to be sold or end up on open-air dumps.
Texaid is one of the leaders in textile recycling in Europe. The Swiss-based firm recorded sales of CHF97.2 million in 2018 (latest figures). That year it collected nearly 36,000 tonnes of clothing in Switzerland and 80,000 tonnes in Europe.
Texaid’s clothes are generally transported and sorted in Germany, Bulgaria and Hungary. Fabrics that are too damaged to be sold are recycled into rags or insulation. The rest ends up being burned in the countries where they are sorted. Around half of the clothing is exported, mainly to Asia and Africa.
Kenya is a major hub for the second-hand textile trade, as this article by Swiss public television RTS explainsExternal link. But critics argue that it has also become a dumping ground for fast fashion. Around 30-40% of the clothing and fabrics cannot be resold on the local market, causing major environmental and health problems, according to some NGOsExternal link. Damaged clothing ends up being thrown away or burned in open landfills, especially in the capital Nairobi.
The Swiss lump sum tax market is slowly eroding.
Switzerland is well known for its controversial “lump sum” tax policy that imposes a levy on the net worth of wealthy foreign individuals rather than income. This leads to lower tax bills, which in turn attracts rich residents to Switzerland from abroad. In Switzerland an estimated 4,000 people pay CHF800 million in lump sum taxes every year.
But according to a lengthy articleExternal link in 24Heures, the number of people with lump sum tax status in French-speaking Switzerland is plummeting. All regions recorded declines this year, especially in cantons Vaud and Valais (photo of Verbier above). Canton Valais had 70 fewer cases in 2021 (down to 846), while there were 1,214 in 2012. The same goes for Vaud, which lost 500 over the same period.
Why? Stricter controls, tougher rules and international competition are to blame, the journalists found.
“We had to make the [lump sum] packages more expensive and with strict rules so that they were still accepted by the Swiss people,” explained tax lawyer Philippe Kenel.
But the tax model is certainly not running out of steam, especially for the ultra-rich, say experts.
“We are in the midst of a transition. It’s unfortunate because we lose [lump sum] individuals even if many stay in Switzerland. On the other hand, what is positive is that we will attract greater fortunes,” says Kenel.
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