What an environmentalist is put in a fashion pass: three strategies to prevent clothes from ending up in the trash

Clothing is one of the materials that occupies the most space and the one that presents the worst recycling.Every year they are put on sale in the world «between 80.000 and 150.000 million garments, ”says Gema Gómez, director of Slow Fashion Next, sustainable fashion experts."You have to think about clothes as something that will end somewhere".For her, the life of the garments should begin with reuse and when it is decided to recycle, do it as a clean way possible.

Just as glass or metal have a whole infrastructure that allows their recycling to be relatively simple, with clothes the work is more complex.In the event that it ends at a treatment plant, as Joan Riera de Vall points out, professor at the Environmental Science and Technology Institute (ICTA-UB) of Barcelona and an expert in industrial ecology, the life of a garment «comes to an endwith its crushed, previously separated by tissues »and discriminated by the size of the fiber.While it does not seem difficult today to use the PET plastic of a bottle to make a newdifferent materials.And also because if the fiber is very small when crushing it during recycling, it is necessary to join it with new fiber, which complicates the process.The difference with the way of knitting in the past is that the skein was the same (as with the second -hand jersey in the photo).«Create non -pure, but derived fabrics, converts the garment into a residue again,” says Slow Fashion Next.

"The ideal would be that in the case of recycling cotton," says Gomez, "which can be reduced to very small fibers and requires mixing, 60% is old fiber and 40% is new" but always cotton.Both this material and the polyester are easier for this purpose, but the industry is still far from recycling clothes in an agile and sustainable way.«They would take 12 years to recycle 1.000 tons of clothes with current technology, ”says Gomez.The fashion sector, however, is more optimistic.It says to invest in technology that perfects the separation of tissues for later recycling. Empresas como Inditex o H&M, que producen millones de prendas cada año y cambian sus colecciones varias veces al mes, dedican gran parte de su presupuesto de RSC a este capítulo.

Last September, Zara's matrix announced that negotiations had begun with the Massachusetts Institute (MIT) to find solutions to the recycling of clothing and those of Arteixo estimate that, in the medium term, they will recycle «500 tons of fabric per year, capable capableto produce 48 million garments, ”explains a company spokeswoman.That figure does not represent 5% of the production, which only in 2015 was 1.000 million garments. Otra de las grandes, H&M, que ha sido la primera en recoger ropa en tienda, trabaja con la planta de reciclaje de Soex en Wolfen, que dice reciclar el 15% de lo que le llega.

While we give time for technology to do its job, there is a movement that hits strong to raise awareness about consumption.It is the ‘Slow Fashion’ movement, which focuses on making clothes with higher quality standards and more sustainably, as was done before.But against the low quality of the garments, which are pierced or losing color increasingly, and the lowering of synthetic tissues is difficult to combat.In fact, this is one of the problems facing clothing recycling."Sometimes you have to consider whether, given the low tissue quality, it is worth recycling it," says Professor Joan Riera de Vall.Similar opinion is the environmental economist Federico Demaria, an expert in decrease and researcher at the University of Barcelona: "Materials cannot be recycled until infinity and during the recycling process resources are consumed that are not recyclable, such as energy".Demaria also focuses on the programmed obsolescence of clothing.

Patagonia: a longer life

Against this obsolescence the Patagonia clothing brand claims.A couple of years ago he starred in a sound campaign (‘Don’t Buy This Jacket’, showing their own garments) in which they called people not to buy what they did not need."Our policy is that all garments must comply with durability standards, multifunctionality and, in addition, that they carry a variable amount of recycled material," says Florence Lesouf, responsible for communication of the company."For the preparation according to these principles, we often find materials that do not exist, so we manufacture them".In addition to creating their own fabrics that are easier to recycle, they teach people to fix their clothes and have containers in their stores.

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Ecoalf: garbage materials

Also the Spanish Ecoalf, who is dedicated to manufacturing garments and footwear made with recycled materials, has created its own materials.The company was one of the first to launch a production and design chain only with recycled fabrics, following the trail of brands such as the already classic Freitag in Germany.In these moments Ecoalf works to clean the oceans and use that plastic that takes out of the sea for the preparation of its garments.

Ecologist organizations such as Greenpeace, which have been preparing a classification for years in which they score the companies that make ‘Fast Fashion’ and their work processes by measuring their sustainability, defend the change in consumption habits.His proposal to extend the life cycle of clothing is to encourage the collaborative economy."Wallapop and vintage markets have helped give out these clothes we no longer wear," explains an NGO spokesman.

Koopera: Reuse fashion

Vintage clothes sell Koopera stores, a non -profit organization with plants in the Basque Country and Valencia that are dedicated to collecting Cáritas clothes and the surplus of stores and markets.Its establishments offer second -hand clothes and decoration and decoration objects made with discarded material such as wheels, lamps or skateboards.In addition, they design clothes with the leftovers, such as bags made with suit or ties.Between the Basque Plant of Mungia and the Valencian, Koopera processes 15.000 tons of clothes a year.30% of what comes to him —4.500 tons annually - it is recycled either to make new clothing materials or as an insulator for walls or carpets or car filling for cars.Another 60% is sold to weight or other stores in Spain and abroad (it is sent to Latin America or Africa) and 7% are discarded.

Before the solution of the clothing containers in stores and streets, the economist Demaria proposes another way: «We are focusing on recycling as salvation and I do not see it.The solution is that clothes are more durable and repair it ».And he adds: "We question supply and demand and what recycling costs, because it starts an industry that has many costs, starting with separating materials to start the process".