Italian clothing retailer Diesel has launched the collaborative initiative “DIESELOVES,” emphasising community engagement and environmental responsibility. Designer Glen Martens spearheads a program inviting denim brands to create impactful collections addressing environmental waste. These collaborative creations use scrap materials to blend distinct brand aesthetics into celebratory offerings. Diesel’s partnership with American denim brand Lee marks the debut capsule, showcasing the fusion of both brands’ denim styles.
Individually-souced fabrics are pinned together across upcycled bottoms split by brand. Light and dark washes intertwine along frayed seams, resulting in diverse and unique fits. Each pair comes with “DIESELOVES Lee” badges, available in straight, flared, and bootcut designs.
The collection’s European and Japanese releases via Diesel are available, with a global launch scheduled for March 2024.
Diesel’s commitment to sustainability is evident in their recent endeavours. For instance, this year’s Diesel Rehab Denim collection focused on circularity, featuring specially crafted jeans incorporating denim scraps from Diesel’s own cutting waste. Additionally, Diesel collaborated with UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization) on a pilot project aimed at establishing a closed-loop recycling system for fabric scraps, showcasing the brand’s dedication to sustainable practices.
Nylon is the stretchy material found in underwear, hosiery, activewear, swimwear, and even umbrellas. It was the first fabric to be made in a laboratory. Nylon is made out of crude oil and is very energy-intensive to produce. Producing nylon creates nitrous oxide, which is 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Large amounts of water are needed to cool the fibres along with lubricants, which can become a source of contamination. Moreover, nylon is not biodegradable. If it makes its way into the oceans, it will degrade to thin fibres and small particles that wildlife can digest.
Many designers and fashion brands want to use a sustainable nylon alternative in their garments, but it is difficult to find them. One new sustainable nylon alternative is called ECONYL, a trademark of the Italian plastics company Aquafil. Sustainable nylon alternative ECONYL is made up of nylon waste, including fishing nets, fabric scraps, carpet flooring, and industrial plastic. The nylon waste is recovered and converted into new yarn. This regenerated nylon can be recycled, recreated, and remoulded repeatedly. ECONYL is chemically identical to nylon 6, which means it has the same characteristics as traditional nylon and can be used in the same ways.
The ECONYL Regenerative System happens in four steps.
They rescue waste like fishing nets, fabric scraps, and industrial plastic from all over the world. The waste is sorted and cleaned to recover all of the nylon possible.
Through radical regeneration and purification, the recovered nylon is recycled back to its original purity, allowing the quality of ECONYL to reflect that of fossil-based nylon.
The recycled nylon is processed into new yarns and polymers for fashion and industrial brands.
These brands can use ECONYL to create new products. Once the products containing ECONYL are no longer useful to customers, they can return and be regenerated again.
According to the ECONYL website, for every 10,000 tons of ECONYL raw material produced, they can save 70,000 barrels of cruise oils and over 65,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. Switching to sustainable nylon alternative ECONYL also reduces the global warming impact of nylon by up to 90% compared with the material from oil.
Using abandoned fishing nets to make ECONYL helps to clean up the oceans and helps reduce the risk of marine animals getting entangled by abandoned nets. ECNOYL has teamed up with many take-back organizations to collect the materials used in creating their regenerative nylon. They have two carpet facilities in the US where they collect nylon 6. They also work with the Healthy Seas Foundation to collect recovered fishing nets.
ECONYL has teamed up with over 100 brands (many are swimwear and activewear brands) to include this sustainable nylon alternative in their products. Gucci, for example, launched its own recycling program to convert textile scraps into new ECONYL yarn. Gucci has also used ECONYL to create sustainable nylon alternative handbags. In 2023, Stella McCartney launched its first-ever close-the-loop garment, a parka made from ECONYL that is designed to be returned and regenerated into new yarn at its end-of-life. Adidas has been known to incorporate ECONYL into some of their swimwear designs.
We are also seeing ECONYL used in interior brands like Pottery Barn to make rugs and car brands like BMW and Mercedez-Benz to produce their car floor mats. BMW also uses ECONYL in various interior trims, such as seat covers, door panels, and dashboard components.
As more brands begin to use ECONYL in their designs, we may eventually see a phase-out of traditional, fossil-fuel nylon. This sustainable switch will help the design and fashion industries become greener, our oceans cleaner, and help to create bigger importance on recycling and regenerating used materials.
Fast Fashion is the design, manufacturing and marketing method focused on rapidly producing high volumes of clothing and selling them at inexpensive prices. Over the past few years, fast fashion has increased due to the affordability of many of these items. With fast fashion brands like H&M and Zara and now online brands like Shein taking over the fashion industry, fast fashion doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.
The Fast Fashion Market is projected to reach over $280 million by 2030. Apparel consumption has reached 62 million tonnes a year and is expected to be 102 million tonnes a year by 2030. With the increase in the production of clothing, there is also an increase in the amount of waste produced as well.
Apparel companies produce 53 million tonnes of clothing annually. Over 57% of clothing produced and purchased ends up in landfills. The reason is due to the increase in production. These fast fashion brands use cheaper materials that are generally not made to last more than a year or even a season. Much of what is purchased isn’t worn and is either donated or dumped—with the rise of fast fashion, buying something new when articles rip or tear is cheaper than fixing it.
France’s clothing repair program is trying to change these habits and encourage people to fix their torn clothing. France’s clothing repair program intends to offer a repair bonus for people to mend their clothes. In France, over 772 000 tonnes of clothing are discarded annually, most of which are still wearable.
With France’s clothing repair program, people will receive a $6.73 to $28.05 credit for bringing their shoes and clothes to a cobbler or workshop to be mended. The monetary incentive will be based on the amount of mending that needs to be done. The government will fund the program with around $173 million in contributions over five years. This program aims to create a circular economy for shoes and textiles so that products last longer. This program will hopefully lower how money items people purchase and donate annually.
France’s clothing repair program is run by an eco-organization called Refashion. The organization manages the prevention of waste and management of the end of service life of products on over 5000 companies placing goods onto the market. Within France’s clothing repair program, tailors, clothing brands and repair shops can join the initiatives for free with the organizations.
The organization has reported that approximately 56% of donated textiles can be reused, while 32% can be recycled into new products. By raising awareness about these possibilities and incentivizing repairs, these schemes may actually encourage individuals to reconsider their buying habits. In France, clothing companies are now required to label items with information about the materials used and their country of origin. This will allow customers to make more informed choices and encourage them to shop sustainably.
France’s clothing repair program follows a similar initiative launched last year by the French government, which offered bonuses to individuals to repair their household appliances. In 2020, a law was passed to promote sustainable practices and consumption habits related to household goods.
If more people choose better quality clothing or consciously decide to have their clothing mended, the popularity of the fast fashion industry might begin to decrease. If people are rewarded for their environmental efforts, they will actually save money instead of constantly buying new clothing. It’s an initiative that could have a significant impact on the way we shop and consume. I’m interested to see how it will play out and if other countries will take on similar initiatives.
Plastic eating enzymes have interested scientists looking for solutions to increasing plastic waste. Enzymes are important to living things because, as proteins, they allow biochemical reactions to happen faster than they would otherwise. They aid in everything from breathing to digestion. Enzymes are even used in food processing, paper industries, and detergents.
Because enzymes are so diverse in their uses, scientists have engineered a new enzyme to help us with our plastic program. These super plastic eating enzymes can break down plastic in a few days. Scientists believe this is a natural adaptation by the bacteria and might be a response to the increase of plastic in the environment.
The most common type of plastic that plastic eating enzymes can recycle is polyethylene terephthalate (PET). PET is a type of plastic used in many common products, such as bottles, food packaging, and textiles.
Other types of plastic that can be recycled by enzymes include:
High-density polyethylene (HDPE): found in plastic bottles and children’s toys.
Low-density polyethylene (LDPE): found in plastic bags, shrink wrap and food packaging.
Polypropylene (PP): found in disposable medical devices, textiles and auto parts.
Polystyrene/styrofoam (PS): found in takeout food containers, consumer electronics packaging and packing peanuts.
As the enzyme breaks down plastic, the bacteria produce MHETase, by which the enzymes break the pieces down further. After this process, other bacteria can break down the products into CO2 and water. Unlike other recycling methods, they can break down plastic into its original components, which can be reused to create new products. Enzymes require less energy than traditional methods, such as mechanical recycling. But maybe best of all is that they can be used to recycle plastic that is difficult or impossible to recycle using traditional methods such as those mixed with fabric or other dissimilar materials.
These plastic eating enzymes are now making an appearance in the fashion industry. The fashion industry uses tons of plastic-derived fibres in many clothing products. What’s worse is that very few of these materials are recycled today. Fashion brands have been known to turn to mechanical recycling and approaches using solvents to repurpose textiles for reuse. The challenge with these approaches is that they involve virgin plastics and require a lot of energy. Using plastic eating enzymes will break down plastic more efficiently. They will turn the materials into monomers that act like virgin-quality materials.
Athletic apparel company Lulelemon has teamed up with Australian startup Samara Eco to help them break down old textiles so they can be turned into new ones. Samara Eco has optimized plastic eating enzymes found in nature to efficiently recycle PET and polyester plastics at scale so they can be made into new, virgin-grade plastic.
The plastic waste is sourced and prepared for recycling by cold washing. The enzymes revert the plastic waste from its complex state into its original form. The plastics are then separated from any other additives like colourants. The recycled monomers can then be used in the re-manufacturing of brand-new plastics.
Using this technology, Lululemon hopes to spin used nylon and polyester blends from pre-owner, damaged or discarded apparel into a form that can be used in new collections. The partnership is Lululemon’s first-ever minority investment in a recycling company and Samsara’s first partnership with a clothing manufacturer. The recycling company hopes to make breakthroughs into the mainstream fashion industry as well as work with partners in other spaces to meet its goal of recycling 1.5 million tonnes of textiles by 2030.
This partnership is also part of Lululemon’s Be Planet goals and a step toward a circular ecosystem by 2030. Samsara Eco’s infinite recycling helps to close the clothing loop by using apparel waste to create new recycled materials over and over.
The two companies will create new recycled nylon and polyester made from apparel waste. They will be able to show that recycling textiles and repurposing materials is possible and can be done sustainably. This partnership might be the move we need to change the fashion industry for the future of our planet.
The future is mushroom surfboards; companies like Wyve Surf, Notox Surf, and the Ecoboard Project all manufacture boards using recycled materials or eco-friendly materials to show that not only are environmentally friendly boards possible to be made, and they are, in many cases, better than conventional boards made with petrochemicals. This understanding that surfers deserve and want better than industry standard drives Steve Davies, a surfer and design student creating mushroom surfboards out of Mycelia.
Hailing from Porthcawl, Wales, Davies has known for a long time that the surf industry, for all its eco-friendly aesthetic, is lacking in manufacturing their boards. These petrochemical boards oftentimes break and are washed out to sea, releasing plastic into the oceans that inevitably make their way into flora and fauna and, ultimately, back into us.
Surfing for many demands respect and an understanding of the ocean and nature. Thus, the demand for an eco-friendly board is prominent in his market research. This is why he creates his mushroom surfboards entirely made of sustainable materials. His board is made by creating a natural mold of a surfboard, in which the mycelium can grow to create his all-natural board. The board is then coated with a natural waterproofing material; in his interview with the BBC, he is experimenting with beeswax and linseed oil.
He started collecting substrate for the mycelia, which he had access to due to living on a farm with lots of straw and horse bedding. He explained in his project journal, “This sparked an idea to start a business/surfboard manufacturer from an agricultural point of view — growing surfboards on a farm near the beach whilst using waste materials from that very same farm, reducing the transport of materials, and therefore reducing carbon released into the environment.” According to Davies, he can grow a mushroom surfboard in the right conditions in 21 days. He plans to upscale his project to commercial levels, providing an eco-friendly board that gives back to the oceans that surfers rely on instead of degrading them. This development can also be incredibly profitable, as the surfing industry is expected to expand to $3.2 billion by 2027, up from $2.2 billion in 2020.
Alternative materials are crucial to the green transition we are currently experiencing. The reliance on plastic materials has led us to create nearly everything we have out of petrochemicals. While this has been cheap and effective for us in the short-term, we will continue to see further degradation of our natural environment, which we truly rely on, if we don’t work further to make alternative materials the main way we create in our world. Apparel manufacturers are also looking to Mycelia to replace leather in their products.
Surfing, in particular, relies entirely on the oceans, and surfers are the ones who experience firsthand the amount of plastic pollution and its detrimental effects. It only makes sense to create sustainable boards for surfers, by surfers. And as the world continues to transition to a green future, sustainable surfers will potentially be poised to profit immensely from it.
Zara launched a pre-owned service that will let UK customers resell, repair or donate clothing from the brand.
The Spanish fashion giant, owned by Inditex, launched Zara Pre-Owned on 3 November as part of its environmental sustainability commitments.
Shoppers can post second-hand Zara items for sale through the service, as well as book repairs and donate unwanted items online or through a store.
The platform will be hosted on Zara’s website and app, with transactions going through the Stripe system.
Similar to existing resale apps like Vinted, shopper can upload pictures of their items with detailed product information. The buyers’ details will be passed on to the seller once a sale is made so the goods can be posted.
If customers are seeking to repair their Zara clothes, they can book a wide range of options from replacing buttons and zippers to fixing seams.
Customers can also request for unwanted clothing to be collected from their home for donation.
Paula Ampuero, head of sustainability at Zara, said that Zara Pre-Owned is not expected to be profitable in its early stages.
“At this stage, this platform is exclusively conceived as a tool to help customers extend the lifetime of their clothing and take a more circular approach.”
Fast fashion brands have come under mounting pressure to tackle the industry’s high carbon footprint and introduce more sustainable practices instead of encouraging “throwaway” culture.
Several retailers, including Zara and H&M, currently run recycling schemes that allows shoppers to give them unwanted textiles that can be sorted and recycled to make into new clothes and fabrics.
Earlier this year, Marks & Spencer said it became the first major high street brand to enter the resale market when it announced a trial partnership with the Dotte Resale Collective.
Dotte is a fully circular childrenswear resale marketplace that lets parents with young children buy, sell, donate, and recycle clothes they have outgrown.
John Lewis also launched a rewards scheme for members who bring in five items of clothing to be resold or recycled. The retailer said it launched the scheme because more than 300,000 tonnes of textiles end up in landfill each year.
Owing to the rising woes of apparel waste management globally and how they contribute to a whopping 10 per cent of global carbon emissions due to the fast fashion trend, Harbour9 – a homegrown premium apparel brand in India – is investing mindfully to make its apparel range increasingly sustainable.
Introducing a range of sustainable outdoor casual apparel for the whole family, Harbour9 is using recycled, tailoring-scrap-made yarn to make sweatshirts and tees for men, tops for women, and solid and patterned tees for kids between 0 and 12 years.
The futuristic fashion brand is even devising a way to turn polyester fibres from discarded PET bottles into new-age clothes.
Made by using conscious amounts of recycled materials, the finished products from the house of Harbour9 are pre-dyed to ensure minimal environmental impact, while being in line with the current fashion trends.
Inclusive in their approach, Harbour9 is also making available its sustainable clothing range in plus-size options.
Breathable and trendy in design, the brand will introduce premium and cost-efficient eco-friendly clothing ranging from casual outdoor wear to performance gear for fitness aficionados.
Manoj Jain, Director, Harbour9, said “Climate change due to global warming is a big reason of worry for mankind to get back to basics and transition their lifestyle to being sustainable. One of the basic needs of humans, that is, clothing has kept evolving so quickly in recent years that has led to the adoption of fast fashion and its negative impact on the environment by involving in animal cruelty and quickly mounting landfills. To avert the negative impact of wastage and its impact on climate change, we at Harbour9 have come up with this range of sustainable clothing which is ethically sourced.”
Two billion pairs of jeans are produced globally each year, requiring around 1.4 million tonnes of raw cotton. According to a 2015 study by Levi Strauss & Co, the lifecycle of one pair of their 501s uses up 3,781 litres of H2O.
This is not a great statistic when more than 10 per cent of the world’s population currently has no access to clean water. Add chemical treatments, carcinogenic dyes, washing, rinsing and finishing, and you’ve got an industry that’s anything but sustainable. But technology is improving, making it easier to find the right shade of ‘green’ blue jeans.
Wrangler’s Indigood range has a dying process that cuts energy waste by 60 per centWRANGLER
Based in Vietnam, Saitex is a denim manufacturing plant producing 20,000 pairs of jeans a day, and while that doesn’t sound especially eco, they’re the first Asian factory to join B Corporation, and represent the easiest route to buying better jeans. Instead of 80 litres, each pair of jeans uses 1.5 litres of water during the rinsing process, saving them 430 million litres per year.
Saitex recycles 98 per cent of the water it uses, lasers have replaced traditional stone washing and sandblasting, and by air drying, energy use is cut by 85 per cent. They’ve even started producing building blocks and tiles for low-income housing projects using waste materials. Current brands working with Saitex include Edwin, Gap, Paul Smith and Everlane.
Replay’s Hyperflex Bio line combines organic cotton, recycled fabric and recycled PET bottles for eco stretchREPLAY
American stalwart Wrangler has developed Indigood, a new dying process that uses foam to eliminate the need for water in the process, and has cut energy waste by 60 per cent. One example that has caught our eye is the Indigood Texas slim low, £75.
Wrangler are also starting to make jeans with a percentage of recycled yarn, something that Replay has also adopted with their Hyperflex Bio range which combines organic cotton, recycled fabric and recycled PET bottles for eco stretch.
Candiani’s N-Denim jeans are dyed using Kitotex, made from recycling shrimp shells, and so need 75 per cent less water and 65 per cent fewer chemicals
Like Replay, Italian manufacturer Candiani has been striving to find a less thirsty way to make jeans. Their N-Denim jeans start with certified organic cotton and are dyed using Kitotex, an innovation made from recycling shrimp shells from the food industry which, combined with Indigo Juice, another innovative method for achieving vintage/faded looking jeans without multiple washes, requires a claimed 75 per cent less water and 65 per cent fewer chemicals per pair of strides.
Candiani has also developed Coreva Denim, the first biodegradable naturally sourced stretch denim, derived from natural rubber. Our pick? Candiani’s Razor Biostretch Selvedge Denim, €340, features both N-Denim and Coreva.
Levi’s Red High Loose Taper jeans are made with cottonised hemp, which requires less water and fewer chemicals to grow than traditional cotton
And as for Levi’s, they’ve been collaborating with re:newcell to introduce a substance called Circulose into their manufacturing loop. This material is made in a similar way to recycling paper, but the resulting cotton fibre, created using old jeans offcuts, makes up 50 per cent of the new pair.
Levi’s also has a whole range of sustainable, water-saving, waste-reducing styles. All their women’s loose-fit jeans fall into this category, too. The 90s-inspired High Loose Taper (£110), for example, is made with the brand’s cottonised hemp, which requires less water and fewer chemicals to grow than cotton, plus the finished fabric is softer.
