INTRODUCTION
Due to the advancement of Fast Fashion brands, the average life of garments has been considerably shortened: this happens first of all because of the low-quality materials used for realization of garments themselves and secondly, considering the low costs of this type of clothing, consumers tend to get rid of clothes much faster and buy new goods more often. This trend results in a significant increase in textile waste.
DATA
An important data to be considered is the pollution produced by the textile industry, it’s the fourth sector with the highest use of “primary” raw materials and water (after food, construction and transport industries) and the fifth for greenhouse gas emissions.
The 10% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions is produced by this sector (about 1,7 billion tons of CO2 per year) a percentage higher than the combined air and marine transport as a whole. According to WWF, more than half of the companies controlled in a study conducted by the environmental association, based on data from Oekom Research, have so far taken no measures to help fight climate change’s effect.
Basically, the demand and supply of clothing have increased, and continue to increase, this not only has serious repercussions on the environment, but also results in an inordinate production of textile waste.
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY TEXTILE WASTE?
Starting from January 2022 in Italy, anticipating the European deadline of 2025, the obligation to collect textile waste has been triggered. Textile waste means two main categories of waste indiscriminately: textile fractions (EER 200111) and clothing (EER 200110), which are however placed indiscriminately in the same bins used for general collection.
Our company, which is authorised as a storage and recovery facility (authorised recovery codes R13 and R3) for non-hazardous textile waste by decree D.D. 213 of 26/10/2018, has more than 40 years of experience in the sector and works every day to ensure that the highest possible percentage of it is reused.
THE PROS OF REUSE
Aiming to reuse the majority of textile waste is an ethically correct choice, especially for the environment.
Starting to reuse garments already produced and used could avoid the production of others, and that, as we have seen, would have a considerable beneficial impact on the health of the Earth; another fact to be take in consideration concerns the quality of the garments themselves, very often in fact, garments produced with high quality fabrics and in good state of preservation are also thrown away, making them perfect for reuse.
Fratelli Esposito Import Export Srl works with the intention of valorising this type of waste, which can be returned to its previous status as a garment to be worn, or it can be recycled. Reducing as much as possible the percentage of garments that end up in landfills or incinerators is one of our main missions, while waiting for guidelines that can guarantee end-of-waste.
