Rags to riches

Government has designs on sustainable clothing

With the growing popularity of ‘vintage’ clothing, the rise of ‘charity shop chic’ and the spread of clothes-swap ‘swishing’, it’s a shock to discover that used clothing is the fastest growing waste stream in the country. For every eight new garments sold, only one gets sent on for re-use – though the net energy saving has been worked out to be as high as 97.4% for second-time-round cotton clothes.

No wonder, then, that Garth Ward from the Salvation Army’s Textile Recycling Company believes we need “a radical re-think about how we disassemble clothes”. New technology, he says, can play a crucial role, making it more efficient to separate fibres from mixed materials and reclaim the most useful stuff. There can be money in recycling clothes – as the recent thefts of donations from doorsteps suggests. But Ward is also hoping that the government will be coming up with some financial incentives, as a result of Defra’s current work on a Sustainable Clothing Road Map.

Clothing is one of ten key product areas (others include milk, fish, cars, TVs and domestic lighting) targeted for attention by the government. A recent EU study, The environmental impact of products, holds the sector responsible for a remarkable 5-10% of all such impacts. Defra has promised a ‘products and materials progress report’ next spring. This should go beyond just identifying impacts (whether from manufacture, use or disposal), towards a vision of a more sustainable future, with “short, medium and long-term interventions” to take us there.

Which obviously goes way beyond recycling. Forum for the Future’s recent report Fashioning Sustainability emphasised the huge potential resource and efficiency gains which can be achieved through more sustainable production and clothing care. And, says co-author Vicky Murray, “if you add to this the evidence of increasing consumer spend on sustainable clothes, the opportunities for the industry are clear.” - Alice Unwin

8 October 2007