There is a lot of talk around the use of recycled plastics, but as the leading actors in the fashion industry — but also all other product based brands — seek for new recycled materials (whether it be to keep up with consumer demand or new taxes on plastic), there is no doubt that the lack of infrastructure and reduced profit margins from recycling waste and especially plastic, especially at a time when even China has called it quits, is going to complicate the availability of recycled materials. And it's all very well to think of plastic based fibres, indeed the most used in the textile industry (indeed 63% of textile fibres are derived from petrochemicals(Lenzing, 2017), natural fibres such as cotton (24% of the remaining 37%) are also a major concern. Why, when it accounts for such a little portion in comparison?
Cotton is very resource consuming, from water to land to energy. Derived from the thirsty and fragile cotton plant long associated with the desiccation of the Aral Sea (Micklin, 2007) and toxic pollution caused in part by the heavy use of pesticides, cotton holds a high impact on the environment despite being a natural fibre. And it doesn’t end at the plantation: greater pollution and toxic waste issues from the production process it undergoes such as dyeing, finishing and printing. While non-toxic dyes exist, they are not of mainstream use, and furthermore, cotton is tough to dye and requires heavy loads of dye in order to offer intense colours. I will ignore the spinning process (typically relying on fossil fuel) because that would apply to other fibres too. These challenges have driven an interest of increasing textile reuse and recycling higher up in the hierarchy so as to reduce the production of natural virgin textile fibres and the treatment of textile waste further consistent with the EU directive on waste (EC, 2008).
I have always advocated the crucial need to reduce consumption from as far up the supply chain as obtainable, and to re-purpose what we do have. So I will look at two stages at which we can recycle textiles (and leave the subject of extending a garment’s life as it exists to another story): pre-manufacturing and post-manufacturing.
Reuse
In the case of the former, I look at the fibres turned into textiles but that never made it to garment form. You won’t be surprised to know that during the garment manufacturing stage for the majority of garments, there is a huge loss of textile material during the cutting stage. Softwares today do facilitate the best placement of pattern pieces on fabric to limit the amount of discarded fabrics, purely desirable from a cost point of view (manufacturers need to make the optimal use of fabric to gain the largest profit margins), but the left-overs still represent 10–20% of the original fabric. Which is by far enough to produce more clothing, if it can be made usable once again. This involves sorting by colour, re-fibering and spinning. The yarn produced is already coloured, avoiding the dyeing process, and saving huge amounts of water and water pollution. Pure Waste Textiles do just that, and have saved thousands of litres of water by avoiding using virgin cotton or new dyes.
Cotton blended with other waste can also create interesting and promising fabrics with beneficial properties for the wearer as demonstrated by this company’s use of banana fibres.
There are also fabrics, finished, that are sitting in factories for reasons such as that the colour has been rejected by the buyer because between fabric rolls there are discrepancies, and buyers have a certain standard by which they measure the acceptability of a fabric. This includes colour, but also finishing, print etc. Besides not complying to the specific standards they are rated against, many if not most of these fabric rolls are perfectly usable. Some companies have limited edition collections due to their efforts to maximise the use of unwanted fabrics, and therefore working with that supply.
Repurpose
Which brings me to extending and re-purposing textiles that did make it to a final product stage. Optimising LCA so as to extending the garment’s life prior to discarding it only when it can no longer serve any purpose in its current form is essential to the notion of sustainable fashion. Some brands and many independent designers have taken on the challenge of using second hand materials sourced from original and perhaps unexpected places.
This opens up a completely new design challenge, whereby the designer works around the material instead of sourcing materials purely around the garment’s initial design brief. What I see here is the opportunity to enhance creative thinking as you start to find solutions for working with fabrics you might until now not have thought of, or patterns and qualities outside of your preferred style. Some companies have initiated sorting items lost among textile waste to seek out similar pieces and up cycling them, such as T-shirts. The Renewal Workshop is a factory where brands themselves can send their non-sellable merchandise for ‘renewal.’, usually items that have been damaged in store, or faulty. They get cleaned and fixed if needed and put back up for sale at discounted rates compared to full prices in the brand stores.
To independent labels, collecting single items means creating one time only exclusive designs that are truly unique and full of meaning. There are many thrift shops and associations that collect textiles that may not be fit for wear or use as they were originally intended for. Curtains or cushion covers with stains still leave a huge amount of fabric in good condition, sometimes even good as new, to extract and re-purpose. And some sources are themselves unique, such as fabrics from the French Senate!
Eco responsible designer Gaëlle Constantini launched a collection consisting of no more than a dozen ready-to-wear pieces called “Sénat 1, Capsule”. Premium items (550 € the dress), this limited edition was sewn in her small workshop in the 10th arrondissement of Paris from the exquisite fabrics that adorned the upper chamber of the French Parliament, in the Luxembourg garden. The company in charge or renovating the Senate called the «Who’s Next Award» winning designer to ask if she’d be interested. This sparked the beginning of a collaboration for the designer with the Senate who has found a partner to support their green recycling policy. A wonderful example that institutions can partner with designers to collaborate towards a less wasteful economy, even in haute couture.
With no less than three hundred more curtains set aside for Gaëlle in 2019, how do you fancy wearing the Senate next year? Finally, politics that have style.
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