Should we put fast fashion in the recycling bin?
Should we put fast fashion in the recycling bin? In this episode of The Road to Green we shop with sustainable fashionista Deimantė Bulbenkaitė, get insight from Vinted's Adam Jay, explain the EU's QR clothing passport, and witness ancient wool recycling.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 The textile industry is one of the most polluting in the world. It thrives in brightly lit stores
00:08 and shopping malls. Cheap clothing, fast fashion. Production has exploded worldwide along with
00:14 its toxic emissions.
00:20 We`re buying more and more clothes, but they last half as long. They often end up in landfill
00:24 sites far from Europe and out of sight. Is a sustainable shift still possible? To find
00:30 the answers, we set off on a journey. First stop, Italy.
00:42 We`ve arrived in Prato in Tuscany, just a few kilometers from Florence, and this town
00:46 has been a European textile center since the Middle Ages.
00:51 For Italians, fashion is very important, isn`t it?
00:59 I work with fashion. I have a clothing shop.
01:02 People here like to dress well.
01:05 To look unique in a way.
01:07 Prato is the home of Europe`s largest textile district. It`s also a circular economy hub.
01:13 Fifteen percent of the world`s recycled textiles are produced here.
01:16 Comistra is a leader in wool recycling. This century old company gives a new life to tons
01:22 of used rags, which arrive in this warehouse every day.
01:26 Sixty percent of raw materials are destined for reuse. Around 35 percent will be recycled
01:32 and around five percent will be thrown away or thermovalorized. The clothes arrive in
01:36 these bags and are sorted by hand. That`s how we decide what`s going to be reused or
01:41 recycled.
01:46 When sorted by color, the wool is reduced to fiber and regenerated by these machines.
01:51 That morning, they`re working with black.
01:58 The torn fiber you saw earlier has been transformed into a primary material. And the water we
02:03 use, we recycle it.
02:07 This wool fiber, with its reduced environmental impact, will be blended with others to make
02:11 yarns and fabrics and worn in coats or on fashion catwalks.
02:16 The circular economy is at the heart of the European Union`s sustainable textile strategy,
02:20 which aims to impose the use of recycled fibers and encourage eco-design, a key value for
02:25 the head of this company.
02:31 When we design a garment, we have to think about it in such a way that when its life
02:35 ends, it can be easily repaired, recycled and reused. It`s what we call the magic circle
02:45 of the circular economy.
02:48 Today, we have a great opportunity. The Green Deal and Europe are showing us the way. Sending
02:54 equipment to the recycling sector could provide a lot of work to many people.
03:00 But people still need to buy clothes that are truly sustainable. To combat greenwashing,
03:07 a QR code passport project is being studied in Europe. It will provide information such
03:12 as recyclability and the environmental impact of the item.
03:18 Niccolo believes that it`s the story behind the garment and not its price that should
03:22 drive the purchase. He is the founder of Rifo, a startup that favors natural fibers such
03:27 as cotton and wool and recyclable designs made from recycled single materials.
03:33 What are the technological limits of your industry? Are there certain fabrics that are
03:37 more difficult to recycle?
03:39 Today, most fabrics on the market are bought at low cost and they are not recyclable. And
03:44 that`s a problem. Because the best way to make a product profitable is to mix natural
03:49 and synthetic fibers. Some technologies allow fibers to be separated, but not yet at an
03:57 industrial level. At some point, we`ll have to introduce a recyclability criterion. And
04:02 we`ll be able to say those who make recyclable clothes pay a certain tax, and those who make
04:07 clothes that aren`t totally recyclable will have to pay another.
04:12 The European Waste Framework Directive is about to be revised. It is expected that industrial
04:17 polluters will pay for the selective collection of used textiles. In Prato, a new textile
04:22 sorting hub will be built next year. The aim is to double the quantity of fabrics collected
04:27 and modernize the recycling sector.
04:34 During this report, many people told Euronews the same thing. The priority is to buy less
04:38 new clothes. But is that really possible? To find out, we headed to Lithuania.
04:45 We`re in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. I`m told it`s a bit like the Milan or Paris
04:52 of the Baltic States. We`re meeting a fashion journalist who`s going to give us some tips
04:57 on sustainable shopping.
04:59 On one hand, fast fashion kind of provides a lot of people with the opportunity to dress
05:03 themselves. So, in one way, it makes sense, but on the other hand, the amount of clothes
05:09 that they produce is quite catastrophic, in my opinion, because they produce a lot more
05:14 than we can use or that we should even use.
05:18 A cheap, good quality alternative is secondhand clothing. In this thrift shop, everything
05:23 costs four euros and there are some good materials.
05:28 No one ever needs to make anything else that is new. The amount of clothes that we already
05:33 have on this planet is more than enough for every single person that lives here. How many
05:38 people do we have now? Eight billion? We can just use what we already have here, here,
05:43 everywhere. So, yeah.
05:45 Dei Mantei still prefers to shop on Vinted, the famous secondhand shopping app created
05:49 in Vilnius 15 years ago, which boasts 50 million users.
05:53 It says "Stories in Lithuania." It`s actually the first of course I can show. These are
06:00 the clothes that I like, that I`m going to buy and sometimes you can even swap clothing
06:05 without paying anyone.
06:06 Vinted claims that it is hoping to curb textile overproduction. The company carried out a
06:11 major consultation effort with its members a few months ago.
06:14 Hundreds of millions of transactions that happened through Vinted, for about 40 percent,
06:20 they meant that a new product was not purchased. That means that that new product then doesn`t
06:25 need to be produced. That`s only 14 percent of clothing fashion transactions are secondhand.
06:33 So, we just have a long, long way to go to really make secondhand the default of how
06:39 people buy.
06:40 To round off our trip in style, Dei Mantei has invited us to a special evening.
06:46 Have you ever been to a sustainable fashion show? Let`s find out together.
06:57 My head`s spinning.
06:59 A Lithuanian brand specializing in upcycling is presenting its new collection. Behind curtains
07:05 carried by a duo of punk designers that a journalist really likes. She wore one of their
07:10 creations for the occasion.
07:13 We decided to use suit and the sport jackets together. So, you can go to the office, but
07:21 later you can go to the party.
07:24 The fashion for masses are too big and it`s growing a lot and we don`t need it. We can
07:31 reuse the things.
07:32 They are doing a super good job because their main message is take fast fashion out of fashion,
07:37 buy something that can be remade.
07:39 And that`s the end of our journey. See you soon on the road to a greener world.
07:43 Thank you.
07:52 Thank you.
07:53 Thank you.
07:53 Thank you.
07:54 Thank you.
07:55 Thank you.
07:56 Thank you.
07:56 [MUSIC]