California Apparel News

When a customer buys a sweater, top, pair of pants, or skirt, she generally has big plans for it. She knows why she needs it, what it goes with, and when she might wear it. What most consumers do not tend to think about, however, is what they will do with a piece of clothing when they no longer need or want it.

Many opt to give old clothing to charities. But if that sweater has a stain, or it is torn or disfigured in some way, that consumer may not think it donation-worthy and she may well end up throwing it in the trash, destined for the local landfill. That is precisely where the problem begins.

The United States generates about 82 pounds of textiles per person annually—some 25 billion pounds of textiles—but 85 percent of that, about 70 pounds per person, ends up in landfills, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. That’s 21 billion pounds of textiles per year, or 5 percent of municipal solid waste, going to waste, and the amount is growing.

Raising the consciousness—and conscience—of American consumers about the ultimate fate of their clothing is precisely the focus of the Council for Textile Recycling (CTR). Founded in 1992 by the textile recycling trade group Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association (SMART), CTR recently has found new life due in large part, says chairman Eric Stubin, to the Internet and “the public realizing how green we are.” While SMART has long advocated recycling of all textile waste, CTR is firmly focused on post-consumer decision-making and has widened its outreach beyond textile recyclers to manufacturers, brands, retailers, academics, municipalities, and even charitable organizations—“the stakeholders” in the post-consumer-waste world.

This ad hoc group is brainstorming ways to make Americans aware of their apparel footprint. To that end, CTR has recently launched an educational website designed to both inform the public about what they term “end-of-life,” or EOL, options for all their textiles, and to urge them to explore those options and eliminate 100 percent of their personal textile waste. The website’s address, www.weardonaterecycle.org, says it all, notes Stubin. “It’s a fairly popular message—hard to find a problem with ‘wear, reuse, recycle.’ The goal of the council is zero waste by 2037.”

For Stubin, the concept of repurposing post-consumer apparel products is a natural. He is the third generation of his family running the 70-year-old Trans America Textile Recycling Inc., North America’s oldest recycler of post-consumer textile waste, and he is one of several textile recyclers on CTR’s board.

Recyclers function in different ways, but they generally sift out any usable clothing, which is then exported to poor countries, and then repurpose as much of the remaining waste as possible. As Stubin explains, “More than half of the material we handle gets new life as rags, wipes, fiber, carpeting, auto sound insulation, furniture stuffing. About 95 percent of what we take in is reused or repurposed in some way.”

Much of the present post-consumer apparel waste they buy comes from charities, which keep about 2 pounds out of 10 of clothing donated to them and sell the rest to recyclers. It is clear, however, there is demand and reuse for nearly all used textiles—if they can be kept out of the landfills.

The launch of the website, and plans for high-profile national public service announcements spreading the word, aim to engage the public in the apparel recycling effort in the same way the public has learned to recycle plastics, paper, and bottles. While textile recyclers know exactly how best to use the waste, and charities and municipalities can play their part, the key to waste elimination may well be the apparel designers and retailers on the frontlines.

“We want to advocate to apparel companies that they should make their consumers aware of EOL options,” Stubin says. He points to the care label in Levi’s jeans that states, in three languages, that when the buyer is done with the jeans, to “please donate them.” He cites Patagonia’s Common Threads Initiative and its challenging message to its customers, outlined in its consumer and website materials, of“Reduce, Repair, Reuse, and Recycle.” Patagonia boldly questions whether consumers need to buy a new Patagonia product, offering to repair the old one or even take it back when it no longer serves its purpose.

“I think it is extremely important and eco-friendly that you see large apparel companies take the lead on this issue,” Stubin says. “We want to make this message ubiquitous, and we need the help of the apparel industry to reach the goal of zero waste by 2037.”

Scott Hahn of the clothing brand Loomstate is a CTR member and philosophically very much on board. “For us, we try to understand the impact of what we’re designing, how it can be repurposed when its time is up. We can make decisions at the beginning of the lifecycle that affect the EOL cycle. At the same time, we’re trying to prompt the consumer to ask questions beyond the surface of what the product is.”

Loomstate has been in talks with Nordstrom for a take-back program and is busy designing garments that can be worn at least three ways. Loomstate recently collaborated with Barneys New York to recycle old wool blankets into ponchos, which sold very well. “Waste,” says Hahn, “is a resource. We don’t know if it’s as soon as 50 years, but waste will be a concept that will be really silly.” —Carol A. Crotta