Meet the perpetual fashion in the Netherlands ~ Katja News

When the "Cattle Manure" station stands on the runway: the European fashion industry is blowing a circular economy, Adidas, H&M are responding

Text: Katja J

With the rapid (speed) fashion in the world, many fast fashion brands such as H&M, ZARA, Forever21, and Uniqlo have made great strides in the elite shopping districts of Taiwan in recent years. As everyone knows, when we enjoy the cheap shopping experience and the satisfaction of wearing new clothes, there are many huge environmental crises and problems hidden behind them.

For example, the negative news from sweatshops and garment factories show that these cheap clothes are exchanged for the extremely low wages of cheap laborers in many Asian factories who work day and night. At the same time, the price is cheap and fast on the new marketing techniques to stimulate consumers to buy more, but the quality of fast fashion goods are mostly poor, clothes are usually not worn for a long time to damage, this business the model makes a lot of clothes are constantly being manufactured, but also very It is quickly discarded and eliminated.

In addition to wasting environmental resources, the toxic waste dyes produced by the garment manufacturing process and the wastewater seriously pollute the environment, coupled with the problem of the disposal of fashionable waste clothes that cannot be counted in the pits, this series of negative effects not only affects our living environment but also deeper. It deeply affects the future of the next generation.

European fashion industry trends towards sustainability

In response to the pressure of global warming and rapid global population growth that may lead to future resource shortages, the United Nations and the European Union have included “sustainability” and “environmental protection” in the past 10 years as a key outline for global development in the next 10 years. At present, the European fashion industry is undergoing a drastic transformation, such as re-examining the entire fashion design, manufacturing and consumption patterns, and finding ways to use resources more efficiently and to make the environment sustainable.

Among them, in addition to emphasizing the spirit of perseverance, transforming the fashion industry chain into a circular economy has become the core theme of this wave of industrial transformation. The the current industrial revolution is carried out by the Danish non-profit an organization of the Copenhagen Fashion Summit. Leading a group of fashion elites, through partnerships with industry group companies such as H&M Group or Li & Fung Group, to jointly promote the form of Global Fashion Agenda, call for more brands or designers in the fashion industry to join this reform activity...

It is worth mentioning that in early 2018, under the call of Global Fashion Agenda, a total of 64 global famous clothing brands such as Adidas, H&M, INDITEX Group, LACTOSE, HUGO BOSS and other manufacturers promised to accelerate the brand transformation by 2020. The production model of the circular economy. In the manufacture of clothing, shoes or accessories, it is necessary to comply with the principle of sustainable development of environmental protection. Under the commitment of this circular fashion system, all brands or retail industries will be before 2020:

1. Increase the recyclability and reusability of products by product design.

2. Increase the amount of used clothing recycling.

3. Increase the number of new clothes sold after recycling old clothes.

4. Increase the proportion of clothing products that use old clothes to make recycled fabrics.

From the above several points, it can be seen that the the current focus of the European fashion industry reform and implementation the strategy is to establish a mechanism that can effectively "recycle old clothes into new products" to achieve the transformation of the fashion industry chain into a circular economy. mode.

However, in the development of technology for recycling and recycling old clothes, the major obstacles currently encountered are that most of the garments are made of many different natural and synthetic materials. It is often difficult to separate the fabrics into new ones. Spinning results in only about 17% of garments and other textile products being recycled and the remaining large amount of textile waste is disposed of in landfills.

What's more, recent scientific research reports that synthetic fiber-made clothing will continue to release "microfibers" during the repeated washing process. These microfibers will affect marine life and the entire ecosystem as they are discharged into the sea. Therefore, the European and American textile industry is actively looking for and developing other biosynthetic materials that can replace synthetic fibers.

The circular economy concept of the fashion textile industry and international green certification: from cradle to cradle (C2C)

Under the joint promotion of international associations, government policies, and the industry, it is foreseeable that "circular fashion" will replace the "fast fashion" model in the near future. The so-called "circular fashion" is not limited to environmental protection. In addition to the use of environmentally friendly materials and the production of friendly environments, the cycle also emphasizes the protection of the rights of workers in textile or garment factories, effectively supervising and avoiding the situation where unscrupulous traders are squeezing labor for price competition.

In addition, another concept of the cycle fashion is to no longer produce cheap and vulnerable clothing but to design products that are of better quality, durable and even recyclable. More importantly, it is to replace the traditional linear economy – the economic model that has been used to be disposed of in landfills, and to find more effective and innovative ways of resource management, such as providing second-hand clothing platform services to extend the life of clothing, or research and development. A technology that uses recycled fashion waste to make new products.

In short, the term “circulation” represents the magic of creating value from waste and turning it into gold.

With the wave of reforms in this wave of the fashion industry, the market demand for environmentally friendly fabrics is bound to increase in the next few years. The high-end market in Europe often has strict requirements for environmentally-friendly fabrics. In addition to the environmental standards, the maintenance and fair trade of textile labor rights are all considered in the entire process of raw material acquisition and manufacturing.

In the existing international green certification, the most relevant certification related to the concept of the circular economy is "Cradle to Cradle Certified" (C2C) cradle to cradle certification is based on the circular economy model as the basic spirit of certification, in line with certification Commodities must change the linear economy model that is lost after use, and recycle used waste products into renewable energy or new products.

C2C's product standards provide designers or manufacturers with guidelines for optimizing product processes, and through five major controls, cradle to cradle design concepts: material safety, material recycling, energy use and carbon Management, management of water resources and implementation of corporate social responsibility.

Netherlands C2C Case Sharing: The Power of Poop

Cow dung and clothing? It's hard to associate these two things together! In the Netherlands where dairy farming flourished, cow dung became a serious problem. This is because cow dung contains phosphate, and too much cow dung has produced a "phosphate limit" that exceeds the environmental energy load. Excess phosphate is released into rivers or infiltrated into groundwater, causing algae to multiply. Oxygen in the water is consumed by algae and produces potentially toxic substances that are harmful to humans. Reducing feces is equivalent to reducing the number of dairy cows, which in turn directly affects the production of milk, butter, and cheese, which is a difficult choice for dairy farmers.

Finally, a Dutch fashion designer, Jalila Essaïdi, developed a solution to this problem in her bio-arts lab to solve the cow dung crisis for the farmers and their country. Using the concept of the circular economy, Jalila separates cellulose from cattle manure and phosphate by deconstructing manure, which can be converted into bioplastics, bio-paper or bio-textiles.

Jalila skillfully uses the fabric made from cow dung to design a garment and has hosted a fashion show to showcase her own collection of cow dung clothing. These cow dung clothes have no odor and are soft and durable. They also look the same as ordinary clothes. No one can think of these clothes as cow dung.

Jalila also participated in the Global Change Award held by H&M's non-profit organization H&M Foundation in 2017 with the “Cattle Manure” series. Perhaps in the future, the concept of cow dung clothing can become one of the antidotes to the pollution problem of the fashion industry. Of course, the most important thing is that bioplastics made from cow dung are decomposable and more environmentally friendly than oil, which is one of the the important significance of this technology.

Netherlands C2C Case Study 2: Mango Province Magic

In Rotterdam, the Netherlands, two young designers who have just graduated from college, Koen Meerkerk and Hugo de Boon, started to see the common food waste problems in developed countries and wanted to protect animals and reduce their slaughter due to leather manufacturing. A method that can replace animal leather.

They highly praised the concept of the circular economy giving new value to waste. Together with the background of space design, the two developed a new material and further developed a mango that would have been discarded and destroyed. A new idea for fruit leather.

The main manufacturing steps of mango leather are grinding, heating, drying, and special processing to make it look more like leather. Of course, mango leather can also be applied to the processing of general leather dyeing or printing to increase the diversity of its application.

Since mango leather is made of natural materials, its manufacturing process is cleaner and more environmentally friendly than most other traditional leathers. Fruit leather is also harmless to the environment and animals. Currently, this mango leather project is still under development and hopes to be used to make shoes, bags or more in the future.

Development Opportunities for Taiwan's Textile Industry in the Field of Circular Economy

Returning to the context of Taiwan, if the Taiwan textile industry wants to establish more business opportunities in the international market, the application for international green certification is necessary. For example, C2C certification can not only increase the competitiveness of enterprises in the international market but also enhance the image of environmental protection and innovation of enterprises. At present, Taiwan also has a dedicated platform (Taiwan cradle to cradle platform) to help operators transform and design C2C economic models and certification applications.

On the other hand, we can already see the pioneers of the the textile industry and its outstanding product development achievements in Taiwan. For example, Xing Cai Industrial has made coffee slag into the S.Café yarn series and Tainan Textile has developed Umorfil Beauty Fiber in Taiwan squid scale, both of which are innovative examples of textile industry turning waste into gold.

However, from the perspective of the spirit of “recycling and recycling of waste products” and environmental protection advocated by the circular economy in the business model, there are still many problems worth pondering in Taiwan. For example, polyester fiber or synthetic fiber fabrics of other materials are often difficult to be separated into pure yarns after recycling, and microfibers pollute the ocean. Therefore, many European and American textile manufacturers have begun to develop and replace polyester fibers. Other fiber materials.

However, at present, the main force of Taiwan's textile industry is functional fabrics. Most of these functional fabrics are blended polyester fibers. Then, how should textile industry manufacturers arrange and respond to R&D and production strategies? Perhaps, in the midst of a series of European and American fashion industry reforms, in addition to international green certification applications, the development of old clothes recycling technology for recycling fabrics, research and development of biodegradable or recyclable fabrics, are the future of Taiwan's textile industry. The direction of choice and the opportunity to transform into a high-tech industry.

In addition, many new companies in Europe and the United States are trying to combine biotechnology to develop new biosynthetic materials, such as bacteria to produce natural dyes or stem cells to produce leather. Due to the betting and talent cultivation of the Taiwanese government in the biotechnology industry in the past few years, it can be said that the relevant soft power is also accumulated. As for whether it is possible to jointly develop bio-cloths or materials and stimulate more innovation sparks through the combination of different industries, it is also the future development direction. In order to return Taiwanese textiles to the pastor to separate from the Chinese market, continuous industrial upgrading and innovation is indeed the golden rule for domestic enterprises to compete in the international market.

The full text is reproduced from the accident, the original title: Meet the perpetual fashion in the Netherlands: the development trend of the circular economy in the European fashion industry and the opportunity of the Taiwan textile industry

Source: (Katja News)

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