Sir, – Your editorial concludes: “Cheap does not mean costless and borderless does not mean consequence-free” (“Europe’s tax on tat”, July 2nd). Those words should be a guiding principle of environmental policy. Every ultra-cheap garment carries a hidden bill. Fossil fuels are used to produce synthetic fibres. Vast quantities of water and chemicals are used or consumed in manufacture. Energy is required at every stage of production. The finished product is transported thousands of kilometres across the globe and, after being worn a handful of times, often ends up in landfill or an incinerator.The shopper pays the price on the label, the balance is charged to the atmosphere, to nature and ultimately to our children and grandchildren.The €3 levy is an implicit acknowledgment that the price of many imported goods bears no relation to their true environmental cost.If a garment can be manufactured and delivered halfway around the world for only a few euro, its price plainly bears little relation to its true environmental cost. Those costs have not disappeared. They have simply been excluded from the purchase price. Nor is this contradiction confined to fast fashion. Governments acknowledge the environmental damage caused by disposable clothing, while continuing to measure economic success by ever-increasing consumption. We debate a €3 levy on a parcel while failing to apply the same principle consistently to aviation, oversized SUVs, and the many other activities whose environmental costs remain largely hidden from consumers. The remarkable thing is not that the companies can sell clothing so cheaply. It is that nature still provides the raw materials, absorbs the pollution and receives the waste almost free of charge. Until environmental damage is honestly reflected in the prices we pay, we will continue to consume more than the planet can afford. The true scandal is not Shein. It is an economic system that still treats the atmosphere, rivers and oceans as free dumping grounds. – Yours, etc,PAUL O’SHEA,Planet Before Profit CLG,Shankill,Dublin 18.