Textile recycling
In honor of World Recycling Day on March 18th, created by the Bureau of International Recycling (1), we at Risu Risu wanted to tell you a little more about it, focusing on textile recycling, because this is a subject close to our hearts. A brief overview of the clothing supply chain.
The design
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We've already explained this quite a bit, so we won't go into it again. But our factories are European, local, and family-owned. For our fabrics, we prioritize natural materials: our clothes are made from 100% cotton. For more information about our philosophy, you can consult this page , or even take one of our articles at random, the Children's Boxer, and look at its composition… |
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Next, once created, comes the moment of purchase for the garment. IPSOS tells us that for "65% of French people, brands' commitment to sustainable development is an important selection criterion when making fashion/clothing purchases" (2). |
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What happens to the garment once it leaves your wardrobe?
- More than half of these 8 kilos can be reused, but we don't know exactly how many actually are. We do know that, according to IPSOS (1), 22% of French people have already bought or sold a second-hand garment. A promising lead.
- But what about clothes that are not reused?
- Nearly one in ten garments ends up in a landfill. Unfortunately. The goal is to reduce this! Because landfills mean pollution. Yes, indeed. Some are burned in incinerators, some are buried in landfills and pollute the soil. We'll tell you more about this in an upcoming article.
- Spoiler alert: this relates to the fabric composition, aka: polyester.
- And finally, more than one in three garments can be recycled. That's not much. Because while "single-material" fabrics, that is, 100% cotton for example, can be shredded to recover the yarn, the majority of fabrics will be reused by industrial sectors (for cleaning machines, for example). The rest is used in blends (cushion stuffing for fabrics made of wool, for example, or insulation panels) (4).
- At the end of this article, we provide links to organizations that collect clothing, sort it, and make the most of it.
To learn more, you can consult the BNF website, which has listed some very interesting books and websites: HERE
Here are some organizations that recycle or donate clothing:
Sources:
2 https://www.ipsos.com/fr-fr/les-francais-et-la-mode-durable
