With sustainability taking centre-stage, ‘reduce, reuse and recycling’ concept is gaining importance in the textile and apparel domain. Globally, several associations are initiating textile waste recycling and inventing ways to reduce pressure on the environment. Through their initiatives, they are trying to do away with the traditional ‘consume and throw’ habit that has become outdated in the present scenario.
Are you in the habit of tossing away your old worn out clothes in a trash bin,without thinking twice? Well, its time that you changed your attitude.
According to an estimate, textile wastes comprise 1.0 to 5.1 percent of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) composition in several countries across the world like Bhutan, New Zealand, China and the US, which needs to be handled wisely. Moreover, the fact that 85 percent of discarded clothes end up in landfills almost everywhere and decomposes to generate methane, a harmful greenhouse gas and a significant contributor to global warming, has set off alarm bells.
Several cities across the world have started procuring clothing waste to recycle into different products such as rags, certain types of paper, insulation or specialised fibre based materials used in agriculture, medicine or even diapers. For instance, Markham, a city in Toronto is rolling out a pilot project, aided by a grant from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities for collecting waste garments and has designed special bins. Even the citizens are making their contribution. Claudia Marsales, a senior waste manager based in Markham, nicknamed as ‘the Queen of the Heap’ aims at increasing textiles recycling to 100 per cent.
In order to collect than textile waste, the municipality in Markham has also set up sheds that are of the size of garden sheds.
Similarly, in the other parts of the world like Shanghai, China, companies have placed penguin-shaped bins to encourage people to donate clothes they no longer wear.
Fashionably sustainable
Even the fashion world is turning its focus towards recycling, repurposing, and reusing. In a recent move, Levi’s has tied up with a Seattle-based textile recycling startup Evrnu and has created a pair of jeans from post consumer cotton garment waste. Another brand TreeHugger has reportedly revealed that they spin the unwanted textiles into new yarns and turn them into fabrics, which is used to make T-shirts with a near-zero footprint.
Another Los Angeles-
based company, Bureo, founded three years ago by David Stover, Ben Kneppers and Kevin Ahearn, is actively converting ocean wastes to usable products. The company pays fishermen in Chile to collect old nylon fishing nets, which are then recycled into skateboards and sunglasses.
Even other companies are on a look-
out for various wastes to be recycled into clothing. Unifi, a brand in North Carolina, has a flagship fiber brand made from recycled materials- Repreve, that uses plastic bottles to turn them into T-shirts, shorts, and even graduation gowns. California-based Patagonia has also been adding more recycled nylon to its lineup.
Reuse and recycle
In addition, donating clothes to be reused is also a way to reduce textile waste.
Research has shown that people were more likely to donate highend clothing but throws away the cheaper ones. However, the good is that all the discarded clothes can be recycled and has the potential to help the needy. According to an estimate a ‘Tommy Hilfiger’ shirt, if recycled, can feed a family of four.
See Now- Buy Now movement in Fashion
See Now - Buy Now is a new fashion movement where fashion houses are adapting themselves in line with the customers demand and ongoing madness of buying the products online. The recent craze of buying the products instantly (as soon as we see it) has become a challenge for the leading fashion houses to cope up with the fickle demands. Hence , the report by the fashionibi, divulges the tricks that designers should apply in order to cater to the demands of the customers.
Wearable technology manufacturers demands tactile pressure sensors
There is an upsurge in demand for smart wearable ranging from specialized items like bras, gloves, shapewear, compression stockings, diapers and eyeglasses. The wearble technology manufacturers are in need of sensors that can measure pressure as low as 0.1 psi. They are investing in the developemnt of such textile sensors. Capacitive textile sensors is the most apt solution for wearable textile manufacturers.
