Page 72 - January-February-2021

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The remarkable but

lesser-known

developments in

Textile Sustainability

According to a report of Fibersort, North-West Europe recycling system that helps to close the loop on
(NWE) alone generates 4,700 kilotonnes of fashion with a container-sized machine that is born to
post-consumer textile and apparel waste (PCT) encourage customers to hold onto old textiles.
annually, and just 1 per cent of textiles produced are • Patagonia has developed methods to recycle old
currently recycled into new ones. On the other hand, PET bottles. These kinds of recycled fibres are
it is estimated that around 80 million tonnes of textile available in clothing lines of Armani Jeans,
waste are generated annually globally, 95 per cent of Eco-simple, Marks and Spencer. Levi Strauss uses
which could be recycled. So, it is clear that the need eight plastic bottles to make one pair of denim pant.
is there for the industry to escalate efforts towards • Nike in collaboration with NASA has reduced the
recycling, and whatever the companies are achieving size of the shoebox, and the brand is monitoring the
today is just not enough. effluent discharged, recycling the cloth hangers,
collecting the extra clothing from the public, recycling
Sustainable fashion has been in talks for quite some and using the yarns for making new apparels and
years now. Hundreds of new ‘sustainable’ and footwear.
‘recycled’ textile and apparel products see the light of
the day every year generated from post-consumer Other brands that are working with dedication but are
textile/PET waste, pre-production waste, and worn not as famous include:
garment waste that get dumped/landfilled after their • Parley for the Oceans, an organisation that raises
life cycle. This landfilling has been widely considered awareness amongst brands and consumers about
an alarming signal, and the apparel and textile supply Oceans, partnered with adidas and collected the
chain has tremendously worked on the solutions ocean waste to unveil a swimwear collection.
lately. • Leigh fibres launched Safeleigh that uses the cut
scrap of protective clothing like firemen garment,
The most notable recent initiative towards this bulletproof vest and mix with aramid (natural FR fibre) polyester fabric waste from fabric cuttings of its discarded plastic into yarn and fibres for
approach is the one taken by the Netherlands to to create a clothing line that has flame retardancy as outerwear production manufacturing of outerwear
strengthen circular economy concept in the denim a natural character. • Crystal International, the world’s renowned • Pratibha Syntex Ltd., a well-known name in the
industry, wherein the Government has signed an • Repreve is another brand that markets yarns from apparel manufacturing group, recently launched its sustainable garment and textile industry, has
agreement with 30 companies in denim industry that PET bottles and reports convey that over 1,300 4Zero collection which is made out of sustainable established first certified C2C (Cradle to Cradle)
emphasises on the use of more recycled materials in schools/universities/institutes in the USA are using fabric that includes recycled materials such as garments collection and the majority of the polyester
denim products. graduation gowns made using Repreve recycled Recycled Claim Standard (RCS) recycled cotton and used by the company is recycled
yarns REPREVE recycled materials • The R Collective recently launched its denim
Some famous brands working on sustainability are: • BIONIC is one such fabric yarn made from recycled • Hirdaramani Group has been manufacturing collection named The Denim Reimagined in which it
• H&M for sustainable fashion concept Looop ocean waste garments using recycled ‘Ocean Plastic.’ partnered with The Levis. The R Collective is working to
“Looop collection”, which is in-store recycling system • Cheng Kung Garments which has adopted • Debonair Group in Bangladesh has started reduce fashion’s climate impact, and Levi’s supported
for its customers in Sweden, is one-of-a-kind recycling concept strongly and is recycling its establishing a recycling facility in 2020 to turn its creative and experimental upcycling goals.

January/February 2021 January/February 2021