Blog by Rosie Helson (Intern)
…Well, that is a shorter way of saying what I mean to say, which is that fashion retail businesses have a real role to play in influencing widespread waste reduction behaviours throughout their supply chains, from production to post-purchase…and that these businesses should take action by getting closely acquainted with their waste processes, whilst taking advantage of their global reach to spread the message. <AND BREATHE>
Phew!
What?
…I will explain.
According to a recent report, released this month by WRAP, less than one-third of textiles thrown away each year in the UK are recovered for reuse or recycling. This is truly shocking and demonstrates that more needs to be done.
This month we have had both European and UK waste weeks. Were you aware of them?
Exactly.
There is certainly a role here for grass roots forums, projects and community-led swishing (clothes swapping) events, but just how many of these campaigns are actually effective at reducing the tonnage of textiles ending up in landfill at a larger scale?
Of course, local and national governments also have a role to play in encouraging this, for example by making it easier for people to recycle by providing kerbside textiles collection schemes. But this is still in development and, quite frankly, is not sexy.
The aforementioned WRAP report also revealed that there is a business case for encouraging textile recycling in stating that if just 10% of ‘black bag’ textiles waste was recovered, it could unlock £23.8 million in revenue.
Quite clearly it makes sense on many levels, and it can be fun. So how to scale this up?
I believe that fashion retail businesses, with their global brand recognition and consumer desirability, should be unlocking that power to influence re-use and recycling behaviour. Not to mention encouraging consumers to question whether they actually need to consume in the first place- as with Patagonia’s ‘don’t buy this’ campaign.
Our beloved M&S is also frequently cited as leading the way here- particularly with their celebrity-endorsed ‘shwopping’ campaign whereby customers can drop off old clothes.
These are just two examples of two brands. Think of how many brands are out there (high-street, luxury, online, etc) and how their combined influence could really impact upon the reduction, re-use and recycling of textiles.