I have addressed the issue of fashion and sustainability in previous blogs, and it’s something that is becoming more and more prominent in the news. We have all seen a rise in retailers now providing recycling facilities in store for unwanted items of clothing in exchange for vouchers. Brands such as H&M, Levi’s, North Face and Madewell are currently some of the biggest brands that let you bring in your unwanted clothes and shoes to be recycled in return for some sort of discount or voucher. Not a bad incentive for a nation that is known for over-buying, is it?
However, one thing that sprung to my mind, is how do we know all or most of the items we bring in are actually being recycled? We are all trusting these brands to do as they say, but there seems to be little truth around what gets recycled and how. H&M says it has collected about 40,000 tonnes of garments since launching its scheme in 2013.I:Collect, the company that handles the donations for H&M and several other major retailers, says about 35% of what it collects is recycled and used for products like carpet padding, painters’ cloths or insulation. But how do we know what happens to the rest? Recently, brands like Pretty Little Thing, Boohoo, Missguided and New Look partnered up with Regain, a new clothes recycling app. You don’t even need to go to a store… they send you a box, you fill it, you send it back, they recycle it for you and you get vouchers in return. But it’s still the same case, how do we know all the clothes we are sending back are and can be recycled?
But it’s scary to think that yet with all these recycling options, around 85% of unwanted textiles in North America alone end up in landfills. In the UK, we send around 700,000 tonnes of clothing to recycling centers, textiles banks, clothes collection and charities each year (WOW). Yet, a staggering 350,000 tonnes of clothing end up in landfill sites in the UK. That’s half the amount of clothing that’s sent to all these different recycling facilities, and that number is definitely way too high.
It does make me think that, even though brands are offering these kinds of facilities for us to recycle our unwanted clothes, these figures alone show it’s still not enough. This is where H&M and WeekDay might have cracked it a bit more…
H&M has collaborated with the retail chain Weekday revealing the new ‘Re-Made’ capsule collection, consisting of Weekdays’ designers taking old pieces and altering them based on current trends. So, in a nut shell, textiles from old collections are turned into new seasonal designs that resonate with customers. This is following the news that Burberry would be burning their old unwanted stock, and something needed to change. H&M quoted that:
“This project is just one of the ways that the H&M group aims to create a two-way dialogue with their customers and to provide them with sustainable fashion that they really want,”
And
“Design solutions are as simple as noticing that trends are moving towards denim vests, and therefore removing the sleeves from denim jackets. Afterwards, the leftover materials from those sleeves can be transformed into something completely new, for example labels.”
We haven’t seen many, if any, high street brands going to these lengths to recycle not only their customers unwanted clothes, but their own unwanted stock. After all, what are they going to do with it? In an age where you can be seen in 90’s crop tops with 70’s style flares, we are constantly recycling previous styles, so surely, we should recycle products from a couple of years ago and simply re-vamp them?
Re;code, a Korean based brand, works with the mentally handicapped and the ‘Goodwill Store’ to deconstruct salvaged materials ready for reinterpretation and redesign. They quote:
“We disassemble and re-commercialise ready-made products. People might find it surprising that we use industrial materials such as seat covers, airbags, and fabric linings that make up a car’s interior, waste that is collected from our sister companies within the Kolon group, to design jackets, bags and laptop cases.”
Even though these are only two examples of how brands are using already-made pieces of clothing and disregarded materials to create new pieces, they are leading the way and are at the forefront of change. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve said ‘Millennials’ and ‘GenZ’ in my articles, but they are our current and future consumers. Brands need to follow suit to these kinds of strategies and ideas in order to win over the younger generation. And not only win them over, but make an active effort to reduce the insane amount of waste we are creating in the fast fashion industry.
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