Scrap, melt or spin?A look at recycled fibers

What are we wearing?

65%

35% Manufactured & Synthetic Natural Fiber

How much are we consuming?!

Americans alone consume nearly 20 billion garments a year. That’s more than one piece of clothing purchased per week!

• UNIQLO makes 600,000 items of clothing a year. • Zara processes 1 million garments per day. •World fiber production is now 82 million tons, which

requires 145 million tons of coal and somewhere between 1.5 trillion and 2 trillion gallons of water to produce.• In the U.S., almost 13 million tons of textile waste are

generated annually. Of that, just 15% is recovered for reuse or recycling.

• Source: http://www.overdressedthebook.com/fashion-fast-facts/

FINCH: 2010

The Influence of Designers

Raw Materials

Knitting & Weaving

Fabric

Dyeing & Printing

Garment Production

Customer/ Disposal?

Transport & Distro

Landfill

Sourcing: Trust issues

• Apparel has a LONG supply chain...raw fiber to spinning to weaving/knitting to dyeing to finishing to garment making

• Lack of transparency from suppliers and agents

• Language barrier

• Many different certifications and standards...GOTS, Intertek, Oeko-tex, KRAV, IVN, Ecolabel, JOCA

What is being certified?

• Raw fiber?

• Fabric?

• The finished garment?

GOTS

Global Organic Textile Standards (GOTS) The GOTS standards cover production, processing, manufacturing, packaging, labeling, export, import and distribution of all natural fibers.

Sustainable fabric options

• Organic Cotton

• Hemp, bamboo, soy

• Tencel and Modal

• Silk, wool, yak

• Recycled cotton

• Recycled PET (Poly Ethylene Terephthalate)

Source: http://rpetclothing.com/What-Is-RPET.html

The FINCH Rain Cape

Why recycle plastic?It takes 450-700 years for most types of plastic bottles to decompose

•Approximately 86% of plastic bottles aren’t recycled in USA

•Approximately 1500 bottles end up in land fills and the ocean…every second

•60 million plastic water bottles are used each day in the US alone, 30 Million in Europe, more than 100 million world wide every day

• It takes 3-5 litres of water to make 1 plastic bottle

•Plastic bottles are a petroleum product and use 151 billion litres of oil to produce each year. That’s enough to run 500,000 cars per year.

• Source: http://www.safebottles.co.nz/News/Plastics+and+the+Environment.html

But wait...

• Where do the recycled plastic bottles come from?

• How do we know these are actually post-consumer use bottles?

• How many bottles does it take to make one cape?

Sourcing eco-friendly dyes

• The dyes allowed under GOTS are limited to natural dyes and some synthetic dyes that meet GOTS specific requirements

• Look for “low-impact dyes” and “fiber-reactive dyes”

• Avoid dyes with heavy metals, formaldehyde, pesticides, and azo dyes

...and printing?

• Screen printing with low-impact dyes

• Digital or inkjet textile printing

• VOCs, solvents, energy and water inputs

Keep in mind...

• The real costs of FAST FASHION are borne by the garment factory workers, the environment and our limited resources

• Invest in timeless, high-quality garments that have been made under fair labor conditions

• CONSUME LESS, RE-USE MORE!