After Several Scandals, These Big Brands Start Recycling
What sane person would let nearly $40 million worth of goods go up in smoke? A few months ago, it was discovered that Burberry was burning its unsold products to preserve their rarity and prevent counterfeiting. The fashion house announced it would end the practice after realizing that setting fire to its unsold items had also set its reputation on fire. The manufacturer will no longer burn its unfinished stocks, in favor of recycling.
“Being a modern luxury player means being socially and environmentally responsible,” said Marco, CEO of Burberry.
That a brand deliberately destroys its unsold items is nothing new. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Italian fashion icon Stefano Ricci also has his little secret. Every winter, “he collects all the unsold items for the year… and sends them by truck to the incinerator”, partly to claim a tax credit. In another investigation last year by a Danish TV program, H&M was accused of shipping 12 tons of unsold (new) clothes to the ovens. Per year. The Swedish “fast fashion” giant denied, saying the clothes had been “sent to the incinerator due to mold or failure to meet our strict chemical restrictions. »
It is not uncommon for an entire stock to be defaced and discarded. An article in the New York Times last year exposed Nike's questionable practices. The brand laced up its own shoes before disposing of them so that they could not be worn or resold. "A small amount of product from our Nike SoHo store in New York did not meet our standards for restocking, recycling or donating, so it was thrown away," a spokeswoman for the brand told the newspaper.
The problem does not end with the simple act of burning, tearing or throwing away products. The Global Fashion Agenda, a new forum that promotes sustainable development in the world of fashion, recently published an alarming press release: Pulse Of The Fashion Industry. The fashion industry generates 4% of global waste each year, or 93 million tons. A large part comes from fabric scraps that are not reused during the production process.
The new generation of environmentally and socially conscious consumers has inspired a movement that is putting strong pressure on brands and retailers to reduce waste from this industry. It is not only a question of recycling or reusing, but first of all of producing less (and intelligently).
Fashion Revolution Founder and Artistic Director Orsola de Castro told Fashion United, “We need to stop calling it waste and start seeing it for what it is: a resource. » Discarded materials and textiles, regardless of their condition, have value and can be reused, recycled, or even upcycled into completely new products:
The Millennial generation also seems to be distancing itself from “fast fashion”. H&M sales have fallen sharply, and the brand revealed earlier this year that it literally had a mountain of unsold clothing worth $4.3 billion. Disposable and single-use fashion gives way to a vintage and second-hand trend:
When consumers buy new, they are looking for responsible and ethical brands. They are now moving beyond second-hand goods and moving towards a sharing economy with companies like “Rent The Runway” which allows clothing and accessories to be rented. Public opinion is becoming aware of the problem posed by waste. Witness the support received by Stella McCartney's new collection. She had photographed her creations in a recycling center last year to denounce overproduction and overconsumption.
We are witnessing a real awareness of the population moving towards a circular and waste-free economy, in which products are not for single use but reusable, again and again. And the main concerned, the fashion industry, could even show the way.
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