Clothing Companies Join Together to Combat Fashion Waste

Clothing Companies Join Together to Combat ‘Fashion Waste’

64 companies have signed up to a commitment which aims to tackle the amount of waste in the fashion and textile industries.

The 2020 Circular Fashion System Commitment plans to concentrate on reselling more used garments and developing recycled textile fibres.

Who is taking part?

In the next 2 years, online retailer ASOS has pledged to increase the amount of recycled materials it uses to make its clothes, and take materials that can’t be recycled out of the supply chain completely.

H&M have committed to resell and reuse 40-60% of all used clothing garments collected in its stores, and Zara looks set to introduce a garment collection scheme into 2,000 of its stores. The company will work in partnership with non-profit organisations to resell and recycle the unwanted items. Each brand that is involved has pledged to set its own targets for recycling and reusing clothes.

ASOS

ASOS’s ambition is to work towards a future where all of their customers recycle their clothes, and the fibres are reused to make new items. The company has already set up a clothes recycling scheme in partnership with a delivery company in London and TRAID, which is a UK charity that’s working to reduce the social and environmental footprint of the textile industry. TRAID receives money from the clothes it sells in its charity shops, which are donated by ASOS.

ASOS is a member of the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP), so they actively help the public to reduce their carbon and water footprint, and encourage recycling. As well as this, they are working to expand their current clothing collection and recycling schemes and they are constantly setting new sustainability targets.

Sustainable Clothing Action Plan

This is led by WRAP, and its aim is to improve the sustainability of clothing right through its lifecycle. The plan brings together industry, the government, and charitable organisations to work to reduce the use of resources and set industry-wide targets.

Figures that were released in 2015 show that retailers, brands, and organisations from across the clothing supply chain have reduced their water usage and impact by 12.5% per tonne of clothing, so they’re already almost at the 15% target they have to reach by 2020.