#trialogue

[thebonesofhoudini]

My latest EP called "Trialogue". 4 new tracks. All written, produced, mixed, and mastered by myself. Made w/ Ableton Live 10, Arturia MKII Minilab, and Native Instruments Maschine Mikro.

[titanicfreija]

Subclasses

"Guardian. Sunny."

"Empress!"

"Hoi."

"I have more questions about the Light."

"Alrighty."

"Why do you have the preference to solar alignment?"

"... Can I use the w-word?"

"... No."

"Aww, come on!"

"If it kills you, I will change the rules."

"Ugh! Fiiiine! Shut up, it's not funny. I don't know. It feels the most natural. Comfortable, safe. I'm good at using it without thinking too much about it, which isn't true of the others. We all have our things. I like the grenades, the way the fires shape when they're thrown. The hammer feels nice and solid and the impact goes all the way up my arm and into my core, you know how that one is, you have a hammer."

"I do."

"Yeah, I hear it, you know exactly what I mean. Actually, just that. That feeling, but all over. And wa.... Uh. Hotter. Shut up!"

"It's just so funny!"

"I see. Do the others have sensations as well?"

"Oh yeah. Absolutely. Which one first?"

"Void, I believe the purple one is called."

"Alright... These might all just be me, I know we all have our preferences and I'm pretty sure being true makes the unpleasant sensations stop-- but so. Void is.... empty? Like... To line myself up with it, I have to kind of forget myself and then call up an outline? And the outline holds that thing I'm forgetting?"

".... this may be the first time you've lost me."

"Aww! I liked you understanding me! Sunny's a jerk about it sometimes."

"Continue. We will reestablish the communication."

"Hm... So, you ever been hungry? I mean I know you have but that feeling before it hurts, after you've started working, and you notice that hollow pit in your... Wherever you put food, it is a stomach, right? I forget you're an alien. Non humanoid."

"These are familiar sensations. Continue."

"Good! Alrighty, so, that. But... Take that hollow feeling and stretch it out of your wherever, ours is in the middle, but stretch that around you and let go of the ends so that they free-float into the nothing around you so you're covered in nothing until it soaks in and you're nothing."

"A sense of absence. Hmph."

"Nice! Yes! Like being... Well, remembering you're space dust."

"Hmph!"

"So that's what lining up with Void feels like. I don't like it, but sending that nothing into stuff and making it implode is fun. Swallowing the impact of enemy attack by wrapping it around myself. I'll run it in Iron Banner for the bubble shield too, it's more useful."

"Hmph! And the electricity? Arc?"

"Ugh."

"You do not like arc."

"It itches! It's all crawling in my lungs and makes my stomach twist and my legs all twitchy and I get so fucking hyper--and I know you both think I'm hyper already, but that's just it, I get that much worse."

"Hmph!"

"I'll say exactly one good thing about it-- running feels good. The flow when I can get moving, I just wanna stay moving like that. You can feel every cell in your body moving with you, heart going, blood, air, all of it. I guess that's how arc feels all the time for the people who use it all the time, but the moment I have to stop, it starts itching all over again."

"Hmph. You also use the Darkness,."

"Uh. Strand, sometimes? But not stasis."

"Oh?"

"Strand feels... Eh. Like... I don't know, I guess it just feels like being. A little more than nothing, cos I'm still there, but I'm just one more thing in a sea of things. It's kind of boring. Even using it feels like not much, like I'm pulling loose strings on cloth. The effect is huge but I'm really not doing much."

"Do you find stasis too cold?"

"Kinda? It's too... Still. If arc speeds me up, stasis slows me down. In the right hands, it's a glacier in the whole, massive unstoppable way. But I don't like that inch at a time shit. I don't like the chill, you're right, but it's not even a chill so much as it sucks the heat out of me and everything around me. Anti-warm. If void is emptiness, stasis is a vacuum. You still exist but you're pinned by nothingness. Out in open space without any protection. Plus I hate the way it feels to use. It's like being a hammer instead of using one. And I mean that in a, you-don't-even-have-legs, you-are-the-block-of-metal-on-a-stick way. And you have to move yourself by sheer force of will against all inertia and friction."

"Ha!"

"You like that one? Sunny did, too. Made the joke when I picked my hammer back up after my stint with it."

"Did you hesitate at all to use the Darkness?"

"Uh... I'd be lying if I said yes. As much as I want to. Obviously everyone said not to do it, but at the time I was fresh, I hardly responded to my name fresh, I was just answering a distress call in the middle of nowhere. Didn't even know that guy was a big deal until Sunny said something. And like I said, everyone said not to, but the only reason I really hesitated at all was because they kept fucking with Sunny, but then the only way to get that to stop was to figure out how to stop it myself. So I went ahead. And the meditation and new way of thinking was good for me, but I missed my fire. Took my lessons and went home. How I usually do with new things."

"That was a relief to find out. It worried me, how deep she got. Turns out she just does that."

"Ugh. We got her name from one of our arguments. Sort of. I was sweet talking after one. I suck up no matter who won, she pretends to hate it. We argued because I wanted to mess with it and she was begging me to stop. But after one, I called her Sunbeam. I called her my Sunbeam, said she lit my way, could keep me warm until I returned to the Light, something like that. She melted. She was mad at how mad she wasn't. I'm still proud of it, too. I wish I remembered it better."

"She can be so sweet and then other times I want to just beat her head in."

"I can't remember exactly how the conversation went, but Sunny picked her name out of Sunbeam and we kept it."

"Hmph. Sunny, why do you prefer the void?"

"--The shields just make sense!"

"--The shields just make sense, she said it every day for months and then every other day for a year longer, before she finally gave in and let me have my flame in peace."

"Oh?"

"She used Void for about six weeks."

"She likes the shields because they stop or slow the incoming damage, but unlike my fire, the damage stays done. Before it breaks, I'm supposed to be beating my way out to reposition, recharge and do it again. I can do it, but if I screw up, I don't recover well and I usually die. I don't know how those other guys do it. I've heard them say the same thing about me, though. They like the sunspots, but it's just not the same."

"Hmph!"

~

@annieruok94

[lady-inkyrius]

Looking at the SI base units, the Candela basically seems like it could be a derived unit. Unless I'm misinterpreting it you can define it with just Watts and Hertz. I would have dismissed the mole in the same way but I feel I really am missing something there: why are moles even considered a unit in the first place? There seems to be a weird distinction made between a mole and Avogadro's number that I don't quite get.

[ckret2]

Hi mate

Question can you write rodorah fic

Yandere obsessed ghidorah?

I appreciate the interest, but my friend, I am currently three hyperfixations away from Godzilla fandom. Hope to loop back to my rodorah fics someday, but not while I'm in the middle of a massive fic project in a different fandom.

[kessielrg]

I feel so sorry for myself when I actually get into the major choices that branch into different endings. Things are going to look a LOT less organized. xD

[frank-olivier]

Rupert Sheldrake, Terence McKenna, Ralph Abraham

The Trialogues: 12. Education in the New World Order (Esalen, California, 1989)

Thursday, August 10, 2023

[finelythreadedsky]

wait now that i think about it... antigone really does look like the product of the transition from two-actor to three-actor plays. it's so very agonistic with all those scenes pairing two characters arguing or otherwise at odds with each other (antigone and ismene, creon and the sentry, creon and antigone, creon and haemon, creon and tiresias). there's rarely a third person present for these arguments, and in the two places where there is it's. weird. like the scene where the sentry brings antigone in and then he and creon proceed to talk to each other while antigone remains silent, as if she isn't even there or actually cannot speak. and then the moment it looks like antigone's going to speak and it's going to become a conversation between her and creon, the unnecessary third party is dismissed from the stage, so the whole scene is two dialogues back to back instead of one trialogue. and the scene with creon, antigone, and ismene where the whole point is that ismene's NOT part of this and that the play is a two-party affair from which she is ultimately excluded. and the debate over whether the protagonist would have played the role of creon or antigone-- it makes sense if you're thinking of a historical moment where there are two primary actors of pretty much equal standing, plus another recently-added actor, perhaps of lesser status. the two main actors get their equally prominent roles, and the minor third actor shows up here and there as ismene and the sentry and maybe eurydice.

[jan-topi]

if one person talking is called a monologue

and two people talking is called dialogue,

shouldn't three people talking be called a trialogue?

[plots-and-prompts]

Writing Challenge #9

Finish a story with the line, "Nothing has ever felt easier to say."

✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ: 　Word of The Day　 :･ﾟ✧:･ﾟ✧

Trialogue (n. First appearing in the 1532 writings of Thomas More, Former Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain): A dialogue between three people.

[air-of-the-waterfall]

I love that official trialogues take place in a cathedral. It sets up the Thunderhead as essentially a deity long before The Toll even begins, because cathedrals are where many people go to speak with and feel close to their god. It makes sense that this is where scythes can speak to the Thunderhead, and that Xenocrates is resentful of the process. Scythes don't like reminders that they are not, in fact, gods.

Also, there is of course nothing romantic about this context, but cathedrals are known as settings for weddings. Cathedrals can represent a legal and/or spiritual union of two people where both parties are bound to oaths and morals, which the Scythedom and the Thunderhead both are regarding one another. They are intertwined whether they like it or not.

The specific use of a confession booth is interesting too, because there is a sense of doing something illicit. They aren't supposed to communicate, but the Thunderhead and scythes like to work around the law by technicalities, which is exactly the point of a trialogue. It shows their morally complex and subversive ideas about justice, and it's just one of the ways they are actually similar.

Speaking of romance, on the other hand, the next trialogue we see is with Greyson and Jeri. This one is in a cave full of pillows and tapestries, which is much less formal and daunting. The Thunderhead is still a godlike being, but here it's having fun with the game instead of completing an obligation. All three characters' dialogue is blatantly flirtatious, as in "I very much like your eyes," which the Thunderhead agrees with and makes Greyson blush. We see the difference in a very personal interaction as opposed to the official trialogue with the Scythedom.

Greyson and Jeri are acting in good faith to take down Goddard, but Xenocrates is trying to have Rowan caught and gleaned (We know from "Unsavory Row" that the punishment for rendering someone unrevivable is being turned over to the Scythedom for gleaning, which means that no matter who was determined to be legally responsible for catching Scythe Lucifer, Rowan's fate would have been the same. Xenocrates has no reason not to know that). Their motives and values are drastically different, so the Thunderhead's behaviour reflects that. It's the "embodiment" of justice and it acts accordingly.

Through the two different trialogues, we see a range of the Thunderhead's tactics and traits in the way it communicates and the way it uses the humans to further various goals. We also see the blurring of motives and morals from all the characters, because none of them are in black and white circumstances where there is a clear answer to their questions. No one can get clear, direct guidance from the Thunderhead, just like there's no clear way to get guidance from a god.

[noosphe-re]

I don't believe that mathematics is the result of creative activity on the part of people, that it's been invented. It hangs together with an integrity that is beyond the capabilities of the short history of human consciousness.

Ralph Abraham, Trialogues at the Edge of the West: Chaos, Creativity, and the Resacralization of the World (Rupert Sheldrake, Ralph H. Abraham, Terence McKenna)

[coochiequeens]

Well it is.

The move could make the practice illegal throughout the bloc.

Bridget Ryder

— October 6, 2023

Surrogacy could soon be classified as a form of human trafficking by the EU.

At its meeting on October 5th, the EU parliament’s joint committee on women’s rights and civil liberties added surrogacy to the list of crimes targeted by the bloc’s directive on preventing human trafficking.

The directive, put in place in 2011, is being revised at a crucial moment when parallel legislation on rules recognizing parentage risks facilitating surrogacy within Europe.

Most EU member states have bans on surrogacy in place, but several do permit altruistic surrogacy or simply have not regulated it. On the edges of the EU though, in countries from Ukraine to Georgia, a booming commercial surrogacy industry exists whose clients often come from within the EU. Additionally, Ukraine, well-known for its surrogacy industry, is seeking fast-track entry into the EU.   

“By classifying surrogacy as a form of human trafficking, the European Union takes a substantial step toward preventing the exploitation of women’s bodies and the commodification of children,” the European citizen’s initiative One of Us said in a statement. “This marks a significant stride in effectively safeguarding the most vulnerable and actively combating the commodification of human bodies.”

“This decision means that the weakest will be more protected in the European territory and the unborn are closer to being considered as one of us by the EU institutions,” One of Us president Marina Casini added.

She expressed her hope for the comprehensive inclusion of surrogacy in the directive. The amendment did not distinguish between surrogacy arrangements where the surrogate mother is financially compensated and those where she is not offered a financial incentive, meaning all forms of surrogacy would be designated as exploitative.

French MEP François-Xavier Bellamy with the EPP celebrated the approval of the amendment he had brought to the table as a complete ban on surrogacy within the block.

“Nice victory this morning: the proposal that I tabled, with the support of several colleagues, to ban [surrogacy] across the European Union, was adopted by a majority of votes, both right and left, he posted on X. “An essential step for the dignity of the most vulnerable.”

The position on surrogacy was overwhelmingly endorsed by MEPS with 69 votes in favor and 22 abstentions. No one opposed it.

The parliament committee also approved amendments to include the illegal adoption of children from group homes as a form of human trafficking and to ensure that victims of trafficking are not prosecuted for crimes they were forced to commit. It is common for victims of sex trafficking to also be forced to commit other crimes such as robbery. 

The committee’s draft negotiating position still has to be approved by the parliament’s plenary before the directive enters trialogue negotiations, but the wide acceptance from the Left and the Right to recognize surrogacy as a form of human trafficking is promising. 

[titanicfreija]

Hard Questions

"Sunny."

"Empress! Good to hear you! I was hoping we would happen here together! I didn't expect you to reach out like this, though."

"You are currently active?"

"I mean, that's a come and go thing, but we're wandering in hostile territory for the specific purpose of eliminating enemy combatants and disrupting logistical framework, so.... yes. Is the commlink good enough or do you want to do face to eye later?"

"Is your Guardian listening?"

"Yeah, you hit her frequency. I can tune?"

"I would like to ask you both. She is not obligated to answer. When you say 'soulmate', and when the Guardian called you her soul, what do you mean?"

"Ha, I forgot you said that. You'll have to explain that one."

".... Is this really the stuff you guys talk about? Sunny taught me the word. She explained it as a part of yourself that is the core of you, and it's kinda what makes you you? And it keeps you alive in a way?"

"I'm not always good at explaining things and Freija's not great with words."

"Shut up. The way I think of it, if you could see it, it would look like the glowing thing that the Tormentor chests do when you break their armor. The part of her in me glows, kinda?"

"..."

"Do I need to help...?"

"I understood. You and your Guardian both communicate effectively, but not in ways one would expect."

"You understood that?"

"As well as I have ever understood you. Do soulmates share a single soul?"

"Depends on where you read it. I think of them like separate things meant to fit together."

"Does one die without a soul?"

"That depends on where you read about it."

"Guardians do not die with their Ghosts."

"--They do not, no."

"--Part of us does."

"Hmph! I expected conflicting answers eventually. Guardian, why do you say that?"

"I don't know, exactly, but you couldn't convince me otherwise. Are you about to ask about killing her? I need to not be in combat if that's where this is going."

"... It wasn't, but now I have more questions. For you."

".... Shit."

~

"Pardon her. Really though, how far are you going to push, because she's been okay, but it's an easy line to cross."

"Not far. Do either of you know any stories of Guardians killing their Ghosts?"

"Uh. I can think of one who did it, but-- I've mentioned him before, he's one of the absolutely insane-but-genius Warlocks who doesn't have a body anymore. The last we heard from the Ghost, he died with a sense of triumph because of what his Guardian was becoming. Oh, and Wilhelm-7, driven mad by greed, killed his companions and their Ghosts one by one until he killed his own and himself by way of an infection. He died screaming into his comm about his treasure being all his."

"The other one on the moon that got taken over by the Death Song or whatever."

".... It's always madness?"

"Technically, also religion and mind control, but that depends on where you want to draw lines in this language."

"What has killed the Ghosts without the Guardians? I would think the Guardian would die first."

"Pretty sure they wish they did."

"Brya and Sagira, Ghosts of Eris and Osiris, sacrificed themselves to save their Guardians."

"... This disturbs me to hear."

"It disturbs us all, promise."

"You are empathetic to other Guardians? A Guardian whose tie, relationship, or bond is... incomplete causes vicarious discomfort?"

"If you mean I feel sorry for them losing their Ghosts, yeah? Hearing about it makes me sad for them?"

"I think she means the part where you imagine it happening to you when you hear about it."

"Don't we all?"

"Yes, my dear Titan, that's what she was asking, if you do that."

"..."

"I swear I'm not always stupid, there's just a lot of Vex popping up and my smart only shows when I'm bouncing grenades and picking up patterns."

"Forgiven. Are there any surviving Guardians that killed their own Ghosts?"

"Not that I know of."

"'kay, I'm safe. Ish. What'd you wanna ask."

"What would you do if you had succeeded?"

"What? After--what, if I--uh--killed her, what would happen to me?"

"I have seen what happens when a Guardian's connection to the Light is closed off. What action would you, Guardian Freija, take after the deed was done and your body recovered from the loss of Light? You need not answer if the question is too difficult."

"Not this one, not yet. I'd finish myself off. No fucking way-- "Language!"-- sorry. I couldn't shoot Sunny and live. I would need more help than anyone could give me. I had nightmares about the attempt. I felt sick forever, and she was there to get me through it. I don't even know if I would have the mind left to end me on purpose, I'd probably go full on, can't remember what the world looks like kind of crazy. Start talking to a Sunny that didn't exist, and hop out a window before I remembered that she couldn't get me up after I landed. The only exception I can think of-- if she traded herself for me, because I felt I owed it to her."

"We often underestimate our capacity to survive catastrophic events."

"Losing her? Maybe. Killing her? No. I really can't. It's all different ways to die within a year. Accidentally or intentionally. Poison myself to cope until I overdid it, fail to learn to live without immortality, I don't even really want to think about her empty shell, I'm not even trying to imagine actual. Uh. Fufff. I'm remembering a nightmare, I can't keep going."

"It was just a nightmare. You're okay. So am I. We're okay."

"....fucking glittery snow..."

"Should I tune her out of further discussion?"

"We can get somewhere safe if we need to. I'll mute us if necessary. She can, too, okay?"

"I'll be fine, gimme a minute, it's not as bad at it used to be."

"Of the Guardians who have lost their Ghosts, or otherwise become Lightless, how many survived for any length of time?"

"Eris for a long time, over fifty years? And might have hit a time fold at least once, so maybe longer? Osiris only a few years."

"Do they age?"

"I don't know."

"I have another question for the Guardian. Freija."

"If it's about killing Sunny, I can't answer."

"Would you execute a Guardian that killed their own Ghost?"

"... How did I meet this person?"

"Perhaps I should ask instead, how would you respond to someone you know killed their own Ghost?"

"I mean. If I was sitting at lunch and I found out someone at the next table did that.... I would ... Do I have proof or certainty? Are they acting weird?"

"You would respond with suspicion, but not hostility? Is this hypothetical too difficult?"

"She's just not good at hypotheticals."

"Feels like I would be afraid of someone like that even if I couldn't tell why. They'd either show it and I'd feel sorry for them, or they wouldn't and... There's something deep wrong with both of those."

"How common is this line of belief? That something would be wrong with the person?"

"Dunno about common, but if I met anyone that didn't hold it, I would be just as suspicious of them as the one that killed theirs. The one that killed theirs might have had a reason, and they're probably fucked up over it. I'd pity someone like that. But not feeling like it's fucked up is--"Freija!" I'm sorry, Empress."

"I relax formality for these interviews. I will grant you the same excuse for now. So the motivation is more important than the action?"

"Doing it because you know you have to isn't the same as approving of the action."

"I see. Do you believe anyone else could have followed through with the order?"

"I don't know anyone that could, but that doesn't mean no one would surprise me."

"Both Commander Zavala and Sunny have expressed the belief that no one could have."

"I don't know about no one, but no one that could have done it would have been in the fight with Calus."

"That is also a sentiment expressed by Commander Zavala. They would not have been safe to ask."

"Yeah, that tracks, seeing as both Toland and Wilhelm killed their own teammates."

"...."

"He meant that very literally."

"Could you kill a different Ghost? Not Sunny?"

"What? No!"

"If the Ghost at the Vortex had not been Sunny, could you have followed through with your command?"

"... That's a fucked up question... I... don't know. I was ashamed of myself for refusing to shoot Sunny, I can't imagine how I'd forgive myself without that attachment... But... I don't want to be the kind of person that could, but I think I would, because I could turn off the thing that tells me not to shoot people if it wasn't Sunny. But I don't think I could live with myself for a long time after, because I'd remember whatever Guardian and doing one of the worst things I can think of to them when they were doing the best they could. If it was me and someone else killed Sunny, I'd probably ask to die. That's a fucked up thing to do."

"You slay the Hive Ghosts."

"Never in front of their living Lightbearer. Also I quit doing that as much as I could. It's fucked up."

"It is less taboo to kill a Ghost than to kill one in front of their living Guardian?"

"It's just as taboo, but... You know, I know you know, hurting someone you love hurts more than when they hurt you, doesn't it?"

"In senses. The helplessness is a pain of its own."

"See? You... I don't think you get it, it's like if your-- you know what, your dad is Calus, I totally get why you don't get it. She's been with me this entire life, and as far as I care, it's my whole life. She's loved me since before my parents were born, she's taught me everything--""Not your barricade.""--and every time I'm in pain, she heals it and when I wake up, I can call her name and she answers, even if she's a million clicks away. And that's just what she does for me, that's not getting into how much of the just little things I would miss-- I can't talk about it."

"She won't tell anyone if you cry. We started talking so she could understand us better."

"Who could she tell, Saladin? She didn't ask. I'm ranting."

"If you please."

"Fuck. Look. It's. It's not just. Huge pieces of my life would be missing.... Huge pieces of me would be missing. And all of those ignore the part where I love her more than anything. I'm lucky to have that part, not all of us do. Killing a Guardian by killing them and their Ghost is killing us, but killing just the Ghost is sadistic. Making it to where the Guardian can't be resurrected by the Ghost is sadistic to the Ghost, and I say that knowing what we're doing to Immaru. I would probably kill the Guardian first just to be merciful. And safe, so they didn't kill me. Cos I would permadeath someone for Sunny, all guilt off the table. Separating us forcibly is fucked up."

"Hm. The ruthlessness of Guardians would have me believe this has been used against one another."

"The Dark Age was pretty Dark. Glad I missed it. Shit, we still do it, like I said, Immaru."

"Indeed. I have learned much this conversation. I may ask more from you later. There is no obligation. I appreciate your being forthcoming."

"Yeah, sure."

"Freija!"

"You're welcome, Empress."

"You found these questions difficult?"

"I don't like thinking about that day. It's not so bad now, I don't do the thing where I forget where I am anymore, but... Yeah. Difficult. I've got Shadow Legion to blow up, I'll be fine.

"I remember the previous condition. You are recovering well."

"... Thank you."

"I would appreciate your contact when free time is available, Sunny."

"Okay! Talk to you later!"

~~~

Hard Questions <-

New Angle

Honest

Radio Chat

Scripted Questions

Battlefield

Fear

Enlightening

More like Interrogation

(In)humanity

Underlying

Ghost Affection

@annieruok94

[catsharkie]

"dialogue" in my poly fanfic ? more like " trialogue "

[earaercircular]

Unsold clothing may no longer be destroyed in Europe

More than 100,000 tons of discarded clothing ends up in a desert in Chile

Europe is putting a stop to the throw-away culture through a ban on destruction[1] and a digital product passport with information about shelf life and repairability. No more mass destruction of clothing and other unsold merchandise.[2]

Every second in Europe, a full garbage truck of clothing is burned or dumped[3]. And every year, an estimated 11 to 32 million unsold and returned garments are destroyed. Europe has been wanting to reduce this gigantic waste for some time. The European Member States and the European Parliament reached an agreement to this end on Monday evening 4-12: Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation[4]. The aim of the 'eco design law' is to make many products more repairable, reusable and recyclable. A product passport and a ban on destruction of unused goods are the key measures.

1. What is a digital product passport?

Consumers are already somewhat familiar with this: the energy label on refrigerators and washing machines gives an indication of their sustainability. That label (or product passport) has had an enormous impact on making those appliances more energy efficient.

The European Parliament and the EU member states now have an agreement to roll out the digital passport more widely and to deepen its content. First of all, almost all products on the European market will have to have such a passport: from car tires and steel to washing tablets and cosmetics to clothing or smartphones. The only exceptions are food, medicine, cars and weapon systems, for which there are separate regulations.

In addition to any energy consumption, the passport also contains information about the origin, composition, repair and disassembly options of the product. This should also make it easier to repair and recycle them. “People can know at a glance which product is the most durable or easiest to repair,” said MEP Sara Matthieu (Green), who was rapporteur in the negotiations.

2. What does the ban on destruction mean?

Initially, the ban applies to textiles. Globally, 92 million tons of textile waste are produced annually. A large portion of these are returned or unsold goods. In two years' time, they may no longer be destroyed, but must be reused or recycled. This ban will eventually be extended to electronics and electrical appliances. Massive quantities of these are also destroyed every year, especially cheaper items that are not sold or have been returned to the manufacturer.

The new rule goes hand in hand with stricter requirements for composition, repairability and disassembly of goods. The details will be worked out product by product by the European administration, but some guiding principles are a ban on adhesives, the absence of toxic substances, the obligation to have spare parts available and, above all, to offer them at an affordable price. The passport should eventually lead to a 'repair score', comparable to the energy label.

Matthieu (Green) expects a huge impact on the consumer market. 'Instead of offering disposable products for mass consumption, companies will offer many more services through robust devices. So to speak, you will no longer buy a washing machine, but an number of wash cycles.'

3. How comprehensive are the measures?

That depends on the control. The product passport is also an important instrument for this. Europe is counting on the famous 'Brussels effect': foreign producers will have to adapt their products if they want to maintain access to the gigantic European consumer market. Although the European consumer organisation BEUC[5] warns against loopholes. The organisation mainly sees a risk that international online platforms such as Amazon or Alibaba will circumvent the new law.

4. Is this agreement now final?

It has already rounded the most important cape. The agreement was finalised in the so-called trialogue negotiations between the European Parliament, the European Council and the Commission. Now it must be approved by Parliament and the Member States, but that counts as a formality.

Source

Lieven Sioen, Onverkochte kledij mag niet meer vernietigd worden in Europa, in: De Standaard, 6-12-2023, https://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20231205_96579697#:~:text=In%20eerste%20instantie%20is%20het,ze%20hergebruikt%20of%20gerecycleerd%20worden.

[1]  Deal on new EU rules to make sustainable products the norm; https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20231204IPR15634/deal-on-new-eu-rules-to-make-sustainable-products-the-norm

[2] Read also: https://www.tumblr.com/earaercircular/722179599996534784/towards-a-circular-and-more-sustainable-fashion?source=share

[3] Read also: https://www.tumblr.com/earaercircular/723895455727157248/new-report-clothes-are-mercilessly-downcycled-or?source=share & https://www.tumblr.com/earaercircular/720260226679488512/hms-answer-about-the-dumped-clothes-article?source=share

[4] The proposal for a new Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), published on 30 March 2022, is the cornerstone of the Commission’s approach to more environmentally sustainable and circular products. The proposal builds on the existing Ecodesign Directive, which currently only covers energy-related products. https://commission.europa.eu/energy-climate-change-environment/standards-tools-and-labels/products-labelling-rules-and-requirements/sustainable-products/ecodesign-sustainable-products-regulation_en

[5] The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC, from the French name Bureau Européen des Unions de Consommateurs, "European Bureau of Consumers' Unions") is an umbrella consumers' group, founded in 1962. Based in Brussels, Belgium, it brings together 45 European consumer organisations from 32 countries (EU, EEA and applicant countries). BEUC represents its members and defends the interests of consumers in the decision process of the Institutions of the European Union, acting as the "consumer voice in Europe". BEUC does not deal with consumers’ complaints as it is the role of its national member organisations.

[kessielrg]

Making depressing chat stories with Twine and Trialogue. 😅 Kinda wish there was a way to switch from this format to the more 'choose your adventure' style that Twine has.

I'm sure there IS a way, but, alas, I am a writer. Not much of a coder.