Heart the importance of giving a second life to clothes

Giving a second life to clothing, either as a second -hand garment or converted into other products, has become essential to ensure the sustainability of the planet after the hatching of the Fast Fashion or fast fashion, which, for its low prices, invite to "use and throw."

Since 2000, clothing production has doubled and it is estimated that more than half of fast fashion is thrown in less than a year, ending 73 % in landfills or incinerated, according to Greenpeace, which denounces that to produce jeansThey use 7,500 liters of water, the equivalent to the consumption of a person for 7 years.

In addition, the use of synthetic fibers makes, with the washes, every year they reach the oceans more than half a million tons of microfibers (as more than 50,000 million plastic bottles).

According to the Iberian Association of Textile Recycling, each Spanish throws between 12 and 14 kilos of clothes, of which between 1.5 and 2.5 ends in the landfill, where the fibers take decades or even, hundreds of years, asThis is the case of polyester, to degrade.

Aware of this problem and anticipating the urban waste law, even in process and that will force the industry to finance the treatment of this waste in 2025, there are many chains that have been with their own projects for years to extend life to life toClothing, footwear and accessories.

Recyclable designs

The largest textile group in the world, Inditex, with teachers such as Zara, Bershka or Lefties, collects garments in both stores and in the delivery of online orders in collaboration with 95 social organizations, to which, since 2015, it has delivered more than 62,000tons of garments, footwear and accessories for reuse or recycling.

In Spain, in Cáritas collaboration, it has installed about 2,100 content for fashion re-, program of collection and treatment of textiles used for its valorization and reuse, according to Inditex, which also works on the use of sustainable raw materials (38% in 2020) or in monomaterial designs to facilitate recycling.

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Since 2017, it also participates in fashion re- El Corte Inglés, which last year collected about 240 tons of clothing, of which 50.3 % was reused, 41.1 % recycled to obtain new fibers and the8.6 % were allocated to energy valorization.

In addition, this program, have stressed from the department store group, uses about 400 people at risk of exclusion, with a 70 %labor reintegration rate.

Mango, which also collaborates with Caritas with the collection of garments of its customers (42 tons in 2020) and the donation of stock surpluses (385,000 garments this year), launched its first collection composed of recycled fibers in 2020.

From the Catalan firm they have stressed that in addition to reducing waste, economy projects will reduce the pressure on new resources.

H&M puso en marcha en 2013 un programa de recogida de prendas usadas y, sólo en 2019, recolectó 29 toneladas, el equivalente a 145 millones de camisetas, según la firma sueca.

In addition, he tests a garment rental service and works on designing their products to last longer, be easier to recycle and be made of safe materials, sustainable or recycled origin, since 70 % of the environmental impact of a finished article dependsof its design.

The Irish Primark, queen of the low cost, has been marked as a objective that in 2030 all its clothes are made of recycled or more sustainable origin materials, compared to the current 25 %.

To mitigate the effects of the fashion of "using and throwing", it will introduce changes in its productive processes to prolong the durability of its garments (2025), as well as for all to be recyclable by design (2027) and are made of recyclable materials orof more sustainable origin (2030).

C&A ha recogido desde 2017 más de 2 millones de kilos de prendas, de los que el 60 % se ha reutilizado, mientras que la mayoría del 40 % restante se ha reconvertido en productos nuevos y una minoría ha acabado como combustible para la producción de energía.

Car seats or kayak bag

Absorbent tissues are used to make cleaning cloths, while other textiles are crushed and served as raw material in the production of insulators, protective fabrics for painters or as a filling for furniture or car seats.

Botones y cremalleras, se separan para su uso en la industria metalúrgica, en tanto que el polvo producido durante el proceso de reciclaje mecánico, se prensa en briquetas para la industria del cartón, han subrayado fuentes de C&A.

Aware of the problem that all waste supposes, in Decathlon they look for alternatives to reduce them both with their collection and introduce changes in design and production processes or launching new business line: rental of sports material, sale of second -hand products or repurchase of itemsUsed.

Among other actions, it uses production surpluses for the elaboration of bags and packaging, collects tennis and paddle balls to make flip flops or make backpacks created from discarded kayaks.

[Más información: H&M lanza su colección de fiesta más extravagante y sostenible con estampados llamativos]

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