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Latest Trend Keeps clothes Out of Landfills

Posted on by mgray

Europe’s landfills are bursting at the seams with discarded clothing and other textiles. Of the 5.8 million tonnes of textiles that EU consumers discard every year, only a quarter is recycled. According to Friends of the Earth Europe, the remaining 4.3 million tonnes are dumped.

That’s equivalent to 60 garbage truckloads of clothes being burned or buried in landfills every minute. This is a pretty bleak picture, but change is underway.

Circularity and innovative solutions are already making the fashion industry more sustainable. This means producing clothes in an environmentally friendly manner, making them reusable and recyclable wherever possible.

More and … Read the rest

San Francisco’s Answer to Fast Fashion: A Zero Textile Waste Initiative

Posted on by mgray

Fifteen years after the Zero Waste Textile initiative started in San Francisco in 2003, the city has diverted 80 percent of all waste generated in the city away from landfill disposal through source reduction, reuse, recycling, and composting programs—the highest rate of any major U.S. city according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Although there is still a lot to go before reaching the goal of zero waste by 2030, there are clothing companies closing the loop between the production and recycling of our clothes.

For those uninitiated on the idea of a circular economy, “closing the gap” … Read the rest

Sustainable fashion aims to make green the new black

Posted on by mgray

Employing more than 300 million people and producing 100 billion items every year, the fashion industry has a colossal impact on the environment. Driving this trend is so-called ‘fast-fashion’, an exploitative yet highly profitable business model that turns high-fashion designs into low-cost, mass-produced styles.

In the EU, textile consumption is the fourth highest pressure category in terms of the use of primary raw materials and water (after food, housing and transport). It’s also fifth for greenhouse gas emissions. Most of the pressure and impact are linked to clothing and footwear.

Because these garments are meant to be disposable, fast fashion encourages over-consumption … Read the rest

Do you shop for second-hand clothes? You’re likely to be more stylish

Posted on by mgray

Louise Grimmer, University of Tasmania and Martin Grimmer, University of Tasmania

Not only is second-hand shopping good for the planet and your wallet, but our new research also finds the more style-conscious you are, the more likely you are to shop for second-hand clothes and accessories.

In the 2020-21 financial year, 72% of Australians purchased at least one item of second-hand clothes – but we wanted to know more about people who were shopping second-hand.

It is often assumed those who shop for second-hand clothes do so to save money or reduce their impact on the environment.

In … Read the rest

It may not be possible to slow down fast fashion – so can the industry ever be sustainable?

Posted on by mgray

Mark Sumner, University of Leeds

The fashion industry has some major sustainability problems. By 2030, it is predicted that the industry’s water consumption will grow by 50% to 118 billion cubic metres, its carbon footprint will increase to 2,791m tonnes and the amount of waste it creates will hit 148m tonnes.

These predictions are in spite of significant progress being made by brands and retailers to minimise their impact. Many are using sustainable cotton initiatives to reduce water, energy and chemical use, new dyeing technology to reduce water consumption by up to 50% as well as numerous energy and … Read the rest