This article was originally published in Horizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine
Textile waste is so last season. The future of fashion is moving into a new dimension where new textile technology upcycles old clothes into brand new fabrics.
Europe’s landfills are bursting at the seams with discarded clothing and other textiles. Of the 5.8 million tonnes of textiles that EU consumers discard every year, only a quarter is recycled. According to Friends of the Earth Europe, the remaining 4.3 million tonnes are dumped.
That’s equivalent to 60 garbage truckloads of clothes being burned or buried in landfill every minute. This is a pretty bleak picture, but change is under way.
Circularity and innovative solutions are already making the fashion industry more sustainable. This means producing clothes in an environmentally friendly manner, making them reusable and recyclable wherever possible.
More and more designers and fashion houses are taking the lead on sustainable fashion. They design to eliminate waste from the production cycle, meaning they design for circularity.
