{"id":1714,"date":"2018-03-18T15:05:38","date_gmt":"2018-03-18T19:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/?p=1714"},"modified":"2018-03-18T20:01:26","modified_gmt":"2018-03-19T00:01:26","slug":"technology-isnt-going-to-solve-the-worlds-textile-waste-problem-wearing-clothes-longer-will","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/2018\/03\/18\/technology-isnt-going-to-solve-the-worlds-textile-waste-problem-wearing-clothes-longer-will\/","title":{"rendered":"Technology isn\u2019t going to solve the world\u2019s textile waste problem.  Wearing clothes longer will."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The fashion industry is the world\u2019s second largest industrial polluter, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/jamesconca\/2015\/12\/03\/making-climate-change-fashionable-the-garment-industry-takes-on-global-warming\/#68a20c0179e4\">second only to oil<\/a>. In fact, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/jamesconca\/2015\/12\/03\/making-climate-change-fashionable-the-garment-industry-takes-on-global-warming\/#68a20c0179e4\">20% of global production waste comes from the textile and apparel sectors<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Plus, the rise of fast fashion means that we\u2019re throwing out our clothes at an alarming rate. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/jamesconca\/2015\/12\/03\/making-climate-change-fashionable-the-garment-industry-takes-on-global-warming\/#68a20c0179e4\">The average consumer bought 60% more clothing in 2014 than in 2000, but kept each garment half as long<\/a>. Another survey found that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.barnardos.org.uk\/news\/press_releases.htm?ref=105244\">women in the UK only wore their clothes an average of 7 times before disposing of them<\/a>. As a result, <a href=\"https:\/\/theecoguide.org\/eco-fashion-fashion-industrys-answer-help-combat-climate-change\">over 90 million items of clothing end up in landfills around the world<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And apparel spending worldwide is only projected to grow, intensifying the impacts of both production and post-consumer waste.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/files\/2018\/03\/WRI-Apparel-Stats.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1717\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/files\/2018\/03\/WRI-Apparel-Stats-300x174.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"348\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/files\/2018\/03\/WRI-Apparel-Stats-300x174.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/files\/2018\/03\/WRI-Apparel-Stats-768x446.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/files\/2018\/03\/WRI-Apparel-Stats.jpg 918w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Why Isn\u2019t Technology the Answer?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Many see textile recycling technology as a panacea to the world\u2019s growing apparel waste. A handful of companies, such as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.econyl.com\/\">Econyl<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.evrnu.com\/\">Evernu<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/wornagain.info\/\">Worn Again<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/about.hm.com\/en\/media\/news\/general-2017\/Successful-method-found-for-recycling-blend-textiles-into-new-fibres.html\">HK Research Institute<\/a> are developing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.close-the-loop.be\/en\/phase\/3\/end-of-life#tab-28\">mechanical or chemical processes to recycle textiles<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The allure of technology is understandable\u2014it represents creativity, innovation and the future. These days, it\u2019s seen as the answer to every problem. If it hasn\u2019t already provided the solution, our unyielding faith in its potential leads us to believe that it will.<\/p>\n<p>This may present a problem though \u2014particularly when it comes to the fashion industry.<\/p>\n<p>At this point, there are many limitations to textile recycling technologies such as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Unable to separate clothes with more than two fiber types<\/li>\n<li>Unable to recycle clothes with more than 5% elastane (elastic)<\/li>\n<li>Unable to ensure that the recycled natural fibers are long and strong enough to produce an entire garment out of<\/li>\n<li>Energy and\/ or chemical intensive<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As a result, it\u2019d be na\u00efve of us to expect that they\u2019ll be able to process any significant amount of discarded textiles in the near future. It\u2019ll be a while before textile recycling technology can catch up to the pace at which we\u2019re currently throwing clothes away &#8211; if ever.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Extending Clothing Life Will Allow Technology to Catch Up<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s immense value loss in disposing of clothes so frequently. A recent study conducted by Fibersort and the European Regional Development Fund found that approximately <a href=\"https:\/\/circle-economy.com\/fibersort-manual-sort-report?utm_source=Fibersort&amp;utm_campaign=1cef117926-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_01_15&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_0a269b1348-1cef117926-128052285\">64% of post-consumer textiles are rewearable<\/a>, meaning that we\u2019re throwing out clothes well before the end of their useful life.\u00a0 To give you a sense of the scale of the loss (and the size of the potential), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebalance.com\/textile-recycling-facts-and-figures-2878122\">less than 15% of the 15 million tons of used textile waste is recycled in the United States<\/a><u> annually<\/u>!<\/p>\n<p>Even if textile recycling technologies were to be commercialized, that wouldn\u2019t solve for the number of used garments lost to downcycling and landfills each year through inefficient collection<\/p>\n<p>So what\u2019s the answer?\u00a0 Purchasing fewer, higher quality clothes and wearing them longer.<\/p>\n<p>As consumers, we have tremendous power to reverse these destructive trends of the fashion industry.\u00a0 According to the Waste &amp; Resources Action Programme (WRAP), <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wrap.org.uk\/sites\/files\/wrap\/VoC%20FINAL%20online%202012%2007%2011.pdf\">extending the life of clothing by an extra nine months of active use would reduce carbon, waste and water footprints by around 20-30% each and cut resource costs by 20%<\/a><u>. <\/u><\/p>\n<p>Clothes should not have a similar lifespan as the <a href=\"https:\/\/theecoguide.org\/eco-fashion-fashion-industrys-answer-help-combat-climate-change\">food and beverage industry<\/a>. Small changes in our behavior can change that and allow textile recycling technology to eventually catch up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The fashion industry is the world\u2019s second largest industrial polluter, second only to oil. In fact, 20% of global production waste comes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":627,"featured_media":1722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[493,112,392,388,7,494,495],"class_list":["post-1714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-circularity","tag-fashion","tag-fashion-industry","tag-fast-fashion","tag-sustainability","tag-sustainable-fashion","tag-textile-recycling-technology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/files\/2018\/03\/shirt_clothing_clothes_textile_design_style_casual_apparel-1164070-e1521417678203.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/627"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1714"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1721,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1714\/revisions\/1721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}