In sustainability,
closing the loop for a linear economy is an important issue that a lot of
companies don’t realize creates unsustainable waste. I watched the panel on
Circular Textile Innovations with Andrea Ferris, Kathy Constantino, Jessica Schrieber,
and David Sasso. I feel it’s important to close the loop for fashion and
textiles, and turn a linear economy into a circular one, so watching this panel
was hopeful in showing how that can be achieved.
Andrea
Ferris spoke about her company and the unique yarn that they spin, and how it
reduces ocean plastic. This technology, Ciclo as she called it, uses a sludge
that they’ve tested with companies like Patagonia to see how much microfiber
plastic ended up outside of this. They found that almost 99% of this plastic was
in this sludge, therefore not ending up in the ocean. This is so important to sustainability,
since so many companies currently probably aren’t even thinking of this issue,
and this company is already working to try and solve it. They also have yarn
that becomes biodegradable, which can reduce the amount of textile landfill,
since it can be broken down into the earth again.
The
factories in Ecolife yarns were really interesting to hear about, since all of
them are fitted to be solar powered, and 75% of them already are. This energy
is used from renewable sources, so the ability to use more energy from the sun
to make recycled fabrics is important. Often, companies want to recycle their
fabric to create new textiles, but the energy that it takes to recreate this
process doesn’t weigh out the benefits. By having solar energy, there’s a
plethora of ability to be able to recreate textiles and yarn. I think there’s
no excuse for companies to not use renewable energies in the fashion industry,
because fossil fuel will only last so long.
Lastly,
FABSCRAP was a really cool company to hear about, and what they’re doing is
super important. To be able to take scraps from designers and sell it in a
thrift fashion to others, and then be able to recycle all of the rest, is a
feat that not many companies have thought about. They’re able to recycle left
over fabrics, mutilated and mock garments, cutting room trimmings and leftovers,
and other fabrics that otherwise would have gone to the landfill. This cuts
down on so much waste and benefits smaller designers and people who want to buy
fabric as well.
All
of these companies taught me a lot about how it’s possible to cut down on waste
and close the loop from the textile industry. The ability to be able to do this
should inspire others to join them and become more circular in their textile
making, because fashion will become such a less polluting industry if this is achievable.
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