Designers using recycled textiles at one of the world’s most prestigious fashions shows have been praised by the Global Recycling Foundation. Ahead of Global Recycling Day on 18 March, the foundation says designers are embracing calls for more brands to re-think their impact on the environment and has cited examples [...]
Confusion over a product’s original country of manufacture is hampering exports of textiles and electronic scrap from the UK to the EU, say British traders who also argue it is disincentive for a circular economy. Under the Brexit trade deal hammered out at the last minute in December, products from [...]
Demand for freight, higher rates and quarantine rules blight international trading. Despite many of us being stuck at home due to lockdown measures in various parts of the world, working in the international used clothing and textile processing industry in 2021 cannot be described as uneventful. Just about every exporter [...]
The claimed ‘recyclability’ of the beverage carton in the EU is challenged in a report from the Brussels NGO Zero Waste Europe (ZWE). Research based on new methodology being adopted by the European Commission suggest the claimed overall recycling rates for the EU of 51% and those in Member States [...]
Following a partnership with Ikea, Dutch recyclers Renewi and RetourMatras have opened a new mattress recycling facility in the city of Zeeland. The site can process more than 400 000 discarded mattresses per year. Now the new facility has opened its doors, the Netherlands is able to recycle upwards of [...]
It is December! Most people absolutely love this month because of the holidays. To get in the Christmas spirit, people tend to buy colourful wrapping paper for their presents. Here are some things to keep in mind. Virtually all wrapping paper is pretty, but not all of it is recyclable. [...]
What links fashion and plastic bottles? Nothing, consumers might think – but they would be wrong. US manufacturer Unifi has emphasised the connection by transforming billions of polyethylene (PET) bottles into plastic yarn. Americans throw no fewer than 35 billion plastic bottles in the bin every year. The US mountain [...]
The Vinyl Council of Australia has secured government a grant of almost AU$ 350 000 (EUR 216 000) to advance the recycling of waste PVC and polyester composite textile products. The organisation is collaborating with the Specialised Textiles Association on a new R&D project called ‘TexBack’, which aims to improve [...]
UK recyclers are supporting a new national voluntary agreement for a more sustainable textile sector – and have called on the government to speed consideration of an extended producer responsibility (EPR) scheme. Textiles 2030 has been unveiled by the sustainability charity WRAP, building on its previous Sustainable Clothing Action Plan [...]
An H&M store in Stockholm is piloting a textiles recycling programme, called Looop, that spins old fibres into new clothing. The project is said to be the world’s first in-store clothing recycling system and a big step toward circular fashion. In eight steps, the machine cleans, shreds, and knits old [...]
