Innovative organizations team up to solve a critical issue with our clothing: 'We need to change'
Fashion for Good's platform connects innovators with fashion brands, and the nonprofit Textile Exchange works to minimize textile-linked planet-warming gases. The pair are embarking on a two-year initiative focusing on data collection and sharing information related to textile recycling.
The initiative, dubbed the Tracing Textile Waste Project, hopes to improve on existing standards in the fashion supply chain, such as the Global Recycled Standard and the Recycled Claim Standard. All in all, the two partners have more than 30 years of combined experience.
Founded in 2017 by the Laudes Foundation with guidance from William McDonough, Fashion for Good focuses on style innovations that support a healthy planet. The hub even created what was touted as the world's first sustainable fashion museum, aptly named the Fashion for Good Museum, which was located in Amsterdam's city center before closing in June. In 2022, Anne-Ro Klevant Groen, the museum's communications and marketing director, spoke to Luméra about what "sustainable fashion" is.
"We use a framework with five categories that we call the 'five goods': good materials — which means materials that are safe for humans and the environment and either biodegradable or recyclable — good economy, good energy, good water, and good lives, ensuring the working conditions are safe and the salaries fair," Groen explained.
Founded under the name Organic Exchange in 2002, Textile Exchange has continued to focus on the global textile supply chain. Its ongoing work includes what is billed as the first published framework for the industry to understand the pros of regenerative agriculture.
Now, these two organizations are joining forces, and they intend to create an accessible template with a glossary of standardized terms. The goal is to trace textile waste from its source to where it gets recycled or repurposed.
So, why is such an initiative even necessary? Waste Management World explained that a major problem is a lack of information about where textile waste even comes from. So far, the data-gathering process is unaligned.
However, having a more organized and open platform to collect and analyze information could help spot and resolve vulnerabilities that are leading to more textile waste.
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The textile industry is responsible for as much as 10% of planet-warming pollution — more than shipping and aviation combined, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. With dirty fuels still used globally, manufacturing, shipping, and finishing fabric are energy-intensive processes that contribute to the problem.
Long supply chains are another factor. Growing cotton uses lots of water, and garments made by cheap fast-fashion brands generally wear out quickly. What's more, many fast-fashion items are made from synthetic blends, creating care and end-of-life problems.
According to Earth.org, 85% of all textiles go to landfills, and washing clothes releases 500,000 tons of microfibers into the ocean annually (as much as 50 billion plastic bottles, according to the outlet).
Supporting eco-friendly initiatives by your favorite brands and investing in high-quality fashion items can communicate to brands that sustainability pays off, and now it appears more help is on the way, thanks to the collaboration between Fashion for Good and Textile Exchange.
"We need to change the way that fashion is produced as well as the way fashion is consumed," Groen told Luméra.
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