How and why mass market brands are switching to sustainable raw materials

Every second a truckload of clothes goes to the landfill. Consumers who realize this do not want to buy non-environmentally friendly products. Saving the planet and their own business, clothing manufacturers undertook to sew things from bananas and algae

In a factory the size of an airport terminal, laser cutters shred long cotton sheets, cutting off what would become the sleeves of Zara’s jackets. Until the year before last, scraps that fell into metal baskets were used as filler for upholstered furniture or sent straight to the landfill of the city of Arteijo in northern Spain. Now they are chemically processed into cellulose, mixed with wood fiber, and created a material called refibra, which is used to make more than a dozen items of clothing: T-shirts, pants, tops.

This is an initiative of Inditex, the company that owns Zara and seven other brands. All of them represent a segment of the fashion industry known for fairly cheap clothes that flood the wardrobes of buyers at the beginning of each season and after a few months go to the wastebasket or to the farthest shelves of the wardrobe.

• In addition to them, Gap promises to use only servants from organic farms or from industries that do not harm the environment by 2021;
• Japanese company Fast Retailing, which owns Uniqlo, is experimenting with laser processing to reduce the use of water and chemicals in distressed jeans;
• Swedish giant Hennes & Mauritz is investing in start-ups that specialize in the development of waste recycling technologies and the production of things from non-traditional materials, such as mushroom mycelium.

The $3 trillion industry uses unimaginable amounts of cotton, water and electricity to produce 100 billion pieces of clothing and accessories every year, 60% of which, according to McKinsey, is thrown away within a year. Less than 1% of the things produced are recycled into new things, Rob Opsomer, an employee of the English research company Ellen MacArthur Foundation, admits. “About a whole truckload of fabric goes to the landfill every second,” he says.

In 2016, Inditex produced 1,4 million pieces of clothing. This pace of production has helped the company increase its market value nearly fivefold over the past decade. But now the market growth has slowed down: millennials, who evaluate the impact of “fast fashion” on the environment, prefer to pay for experiences and emotions, rather than for things. Inditex and H&M’s earnings have fallen short of analyst expectations in recent years, and the companies’ market shares have shrunk by about a third in 2018. “Their business model is not zero-waste,” says Edwin Ke, CEO of the Hong Kong Light Industry Research Institute. “But we all already have enough things.”

The trend towards responsible consumption dictates its own conditions: those companies that switch to waste-free production in time can gain a competitive advantage. To reduce the amount of waste, retailers have installed special containers in many stores where customers can leave things that will then be sent for recycling.

Accenture retail consultant Jill Standish believes that companies that make sustainable clothing can attract more customers. “A bag made of grape leaves or a dress made of orange peel is no longer just things, there is an interesting story behind them,” she says.

H&M aims to produce all things from recycled and sustainable materials by 2030 (now the share of such things is 35%). Since 2015, the company has been sponsoring a competition for startups whose technologies help reduce the negative impact of the fashion industry on the environment. Contestants compete for a €1 million ($1,2 million) grant. One of last year’s winners is Smart Stitch, which developed a thread that dissolves at high temperatures. This technology will help optimize the recycling of things, facilitating the process of removing buttons and zippers from clothes. Startup Crop-A-Porter has learned how to create yarn from waste from flax, banana and pineapple plantations. Another contestant has created technology to separate the fibers of different materials when processing mixed fabrics, while other startups make clothes from mushrooms and algae.

In 2017, Inditex began to recycle old clothes into so-called pieces with history. The result of all the company’s attempts in the field of responsible production (things made from organic cotton, the use of ribbed and other eco-materials) was the Join Life clothing line. In 2017, 50% more items came out under this brand, but in the total sales of Inditex, such clothes make up no more than 10%. To increase the production of sustainable fabrics, the company sponsors research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and several Spanish universities.

One of the technologies that researchers are working on is the production of clothing from the by-products of wood processing using 3D printing. Other scientists are learning to separate cotton threads from polyester fibers in the processing of mixed fabrics.

“We are trying to find greener versions of all materials,” says German Garcia Ibáñez, who oversees recycling at Inditex. According to him, jeans made from recycled materials now contain only 15% recycled cotton – old fibers wear out and need to be mixed with new ones.

Inditex and H&M say the companies cover the additional costs associated with using recycled and reclaimed fabrics. Join Life items cost about the same as other clothes in Zara stores: T-shirts sell for less than $10, while pants usually cost no more than $40. H&M also talks about its intention to keep low prices for clothes made from sustainable materials, the company expects that with the growth in production, the cost of such products will be lower. “Instead of forcing customers to pay the cost, we just see it as a long-term investment,” says Anna Gedda, who oversees sustainable production at H&M. “We believe that green fashion can be affordable for any customer.”