Are you aware that along with Fashion Trends more clothing can be recycled too?
Sustainability, which was once the focus of only a handful of designers like Stella McCartney and outdoor gear companies such as Patagonia, is now being taken into serious consideration by traditional and new brands as well. They have begun doing this simply to rectify the criticism that various forms of pollution have increased on account of the manufacturing process used by them. From collaborating on the creation of biofibers to the manufacturing of environmentally friendly tag fasteners, the clothing industry have begun closely working with technology start-ups to clean up the world’s closets. Here is presenting a few facts you need to know about the new trend of recycled clothes production.
1. Increased volume unwanted clothes triggering need for recycled clothing:
It is the rise in the volume of unwanted clothing, which winds up in landfills that has triggered this need for producing sustainable clothing. As per the Ellen MacArthur Foundation which works to foster sustainability, clothing production has apparently globally roughly doubled from 2000 to 2015. Interestingly during this same period, the number of times a garment was worn declined by 36 percent. Furthermore, the MacArthur Foundation report stated that the equivalent of one garbage truck full of clothes is burned or dumped in a landfill every second. The World Economic forum also found that 60 percent more garments were purchased, but consumers kept them for only half as long.
2. To reduce wastage of clothing companies getting into producing sustainable fashion:
It is then to increase their own sustainability that apparel brands such as H&M, are trying to encourage consumers to keep garments out of the trash. For example, at H&M’s flagship store in Stockholm customers can pay a nominal amount to have unwanted clothing transformed into new garments through a process that breaks down the old fibers and combines them with new ones. The eight-step process is designed to make a point, not a profit. Pascal Brun, H&M’s head of sustainability says that “We want to engage our customers and make them understand that their own garments hold value,”.
3. The limitations of using sustainable recycled products:
Unfortunately, though it has been found that traditional mechanical recycling has its limits. This situation is well explained by Stacy Flynn, the founder of Evrnu, a start-up based in Seattle who says “As shiny as the fashion industry is on the outside, the supply chain has often relied on 19th-century equipment,”.
4. Evrnu’s perfect solution to solve the sustainable recycled products woes:
To resolve the issue of limitations arising with regards to usage of sustainable fashion, companies like Ms. Flynn’s seek to reduce fibers to their basic chemical components and build them back up with less impact. Additionally, Evrnu’s first product, which Ms. Flynn said she hoped would become commercially available this year, converts the cotton in garments to lyocell, a cellulose fiber that is now made only from wood. The process, called NuCycl, will update the initial recycling step of sorting, grading and shredding fabric by adding a camera that can more accurately identify a fabric’s composition.
Whatever be the future of sustainable fashion the bottom line is, ultimately these developments will transform the fashion world as long as customers buy in. The look and feel, as well as the price, will have to work.