Fashion's Biggest Sustainability Lie

When I was last in Prato buying recycled yarn, I saw some huge bales of fibre by the warehouse doors. When I say huge bales, they were up to the ceiling. It’s a big warehouse (I’ll include a photo). The fibre was turquoise and green, which sounds like it shouldn’t work but it did. It was a mix of synthetic and natural fibre – which you can’t spin. I was told it was from a high-street brand and it was going back to the brand as fibre. Hmmm. Doesn’t quite make sense. Unless the brand wanted to use the fibre for stuffing mattresses or something. I asked the recyclers. They said they could only guess the answer. You won’t believe it. The brand would send it to landfill. They went to all the trouble of getting their waste colour-sorted, cleaned and turned back into fibre so they could SAY they’d recycled their waste jumpers, and there would be a paper trail to prove it. But they never had the intention to make it into sweaters again.

I know. Mad.

Everyone talks about ‘fashion circularity’. Nobody knows what it is. Circularity is a planned future for a garment beyond the point when it’s sold. That means the brand holds the responsibility for its own output, with a system set up to keep clothing in use for as long as possible, and when it’s worn out, providing a means by which it can be recycled.

The opposite of circularity is the linear ‘take-make-dispose’ model, where raw materials are ‘taken’, manufacturers then ‘make’ the garments and when they’re no longer wanted, they are ‘disposed’ of.

Brands that care about circularity observe the following:
• Design for longevity (rather than the fast fashion model of designing for obsolescence – so you buy again quickly).
• Design to minimise waste during manufacture.
• Design to recycle, so choose 100 % natural fibres - no blends.
• Offer repair and alteration services to keep the garments in use.
• Incentivise consumers to send you their old jumpers.
• Source a way to turn old jumpers into fresh new yarn.
• Sounds obvious but this is important – SELL GARMENTS MADE OF RECYCLED YARN.