People involved: Recycling is not the solution for the apparel industry

France was the first country in the world to introduce a ban on throwing away food that can be eaten. In January, approved a law that bans clothing that is going to be used and thrown away at the end of this year. The French government estimates that the clothing up to a value of 7 to 8 billion Swedish kronor is being destroyed in this country every year, according to the Deutsche Welle (DW).

the five-year need of clothing and other textiles are sorted separately in each of the EU countries. Birgitta Losman, hållbarhetsstrateg at the University college of Borås, has been tasked by the government to investigate how the garment brands can take on more responsibilities when the legislation comes into effect.

"the Idea of producer responsibility is that the utsläpparen have to pay," she said.

it will be to make sure that there is a plan for what to do with the large amount of clothes to be sorted, but also look at how clothing can have a long life.

" the Environmental benefits are much greater if you manage to extend the life of your clothes. This is true even if we succeed in establishing a system for the fiberåtervinning on a large scale, " she says.

the re-use and re-use are an important part of the study. Other things that should be considered is how it can be done though, and the update of the item of clothing. An example of this would be to make the basic garments of high quality, in which the pressure can be changed according to the season.

this is to be presented to the current sector for the second hand to be taken into account. Also, the vat is to be reviewed, according to Birgitta Losman, who in the past have had the political mission of the Party.

" There are companies who are beginning to see the viability of services such as rental, second-hand and upgrade. The question is whether it is possible to control so there will be even more rewarding, " she says.

the study will be presented no later than the 10th of december, in the year of.
Birgitta Losman is a special investigator for the Swedish Government offices and to work as a hållbarhetsstrateg at the University of Borås. Photo credit: Catharina Fyrberg

it has been shown in the past of how the new clothing from H&M to be sent as a sekretessavfall in the plomberad the container, and incinerated in the uk and Denmark. The year 2016, burned 19 tons of clothes in Västerås, sweden, combined heat and power, according to the audit.

H&M has stated that it is concerned about the form of the high concentrations of the chemicals, which therefore could not be sold. XXL, Nike uk Burberry other brands, which is been detected, to ruin the new clothes that have not been sold. The discount chains destroy the goods is that they are too expensive to store, while the lyxvarumärkena to ensure that they are being sold on the black market, writes DW.

Sandra Roos, phd and textilforskare on the Rise, it has been brought up a report of the clothing carbon footprint in the research programme Mistra Future Fashion. As can be seen, 80 per cent of the climate impact of Swedish clothing consumption occurs when the garment is to be manufactured. She said that the fabrics to which the major brands to collect, rarely gets new clothes.

" There is a lot of greenwashing in the region. The news of the recovery is often a question of whether the experiments that have been made in the labbskala of 10 grams of fabric. The technical conditions in order to recover, on a larger scale is lacking, " says Sandra Roos.

she was at the business who is happy to talk about their work on sustainability, but that it will lead to concrete improvements in the area.

instead, in order to be changed into the new clothes will be collected, the textiles are often, in a cloth, and the insulation material. The pure cotton is without chemicals, it can be viscose rayon.

"the Problem is that many consumers are opting out of viscose, because it doesn't have the same look and feel as cotton wool," says Sandra Roos.

She was seeing a problem with the way that the concept of talk about the circular fashion, as if it's meant to be the clothing can be recycled indefinitely. Recycling can give the fabrics an extra life, but in a lot of cases the fibers are then too short for them to be able to be used again, according to Sandra, He.

"you are not allowed to make a t-shirt made of mechanically recycled cottons," she says.

this means that they are cut and torn to smaller pieces in order to get the loose fibers out again.
Sandra Roos, phd and textilforskare on the Rise. Photo credit: Christian Löwhagen
the Process it takes to make new clothes out of old fibers also represents a burden on both the climate and the environment.

the Fibres need to go through the different production steps. Viscose fibers may be sent back to Bangladesh, where they spin the yarn, dye and weave, "she says.

" Many people think that recycling is a form of ”ctrl + z”, (the shortcut key for the undo action is red.n.) to take back our impact on the environment and the climate. However, it is not the fibre itself, which has the greatest environmental and climate change, " says Sandra Roos.