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Helene Smits – Chief Sustainability Officer, Recover™, shares how recycled materials can make fashion sustainable.
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Many of us have heard the sustainable mantra. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. As we look for ways to adopt this ethos into our own lives, our favorite fashion designers are looking for ways to do it too. Athleisurewear brands are making leggings from recycled plastic water bottles. Deadstock materials are becoming cool among the L.A scene. And, recycling what we already have in play is fast becoming not only a trend, but a constant. One of these being how designers are rethinking the fabric of our lives- cotton. Virgin cotton is out and recycled cotton is in. It can not only minimize water waste (thousands of liters of water are used to make a single garment) but recycled cotton also helps to minimize energy and land use and extends the life of raw materials.
To learn more about this innovative material Helene Smits – Chief Sustainability Officer, Recover™, a leading producer of recycled cotton answered questions about the various aspects of recycled cotton and explained how the fabric of our lives is now the most sustainable.
What makes recycled cotton one of the most sustainable fabrics available?
Recover™ recycled cotton fiber has been identified by the Higg Material Sustainability Index as the lowest impact cotton fiber in the world and all our products are third party certified (Organic Cotton Standard, Global Recycled Standard, Oekotex Standard 100). The Recover process uses almost zero water, and using Recover recycled cotton fiber instead of virgin cotton fiber saves up to 15.000 liters of water, 1.1 kg of chemical pollutants, 23 kg of CO2, 56 kWh of energy and 10.5 M2 of land.
Recover is the only solution that can help to appease the clothing industries hunger for sustainable cotton fibers by delivering a recycled alternative, at scale, cost neutral for our brand and retail partners and most importantly, affordable for the consumer. Ultimately, Recover’s vision is to achieve circular fashion for all.
How can the use of recycled fabrics make a better impact on the environment, consumers and workers?
The impact of the production of virgin cotton and other textile fibers is a major concern and touches many environmental problems including water scarcity, chemical pollution and climate change.
While cotton is a great fiber, it takes a lot of water, land and chemicals to produce. As an example, a single T-shirt requires 2,700 litres of water to make, equivalent to what an average person drinks in three years. We are now producing over 100 billion garments each year, many of them made from cotton. We are already on the path to global water scarcity and if we continue on this path, by 2050 more than half of the global population (57%) will live in areas that suffer water scarcity at least one month each year.
By using recycled cotton fibers and fabrics like Recover, the fashion industry will be able to make an impact by reducing the need to cultivate virgin cotton, and ultimately reverse some of the damage it has created over the decades. As we are expanding and scaling our production to produce 200,000 metric tons of recycled cotton fiber by 2025, this will save nearly three trillion liters of water each year and allow 500,000 acres of land to be directed away from cotton cultivation for other uses.
If we’ve had the technology to recycle textile waste already for decades, why has it just become mainstream in the fashion industry recently?
The fast tracking of the need for technology like Recover is driven by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals developed in 2015, and the fashion industry was called upon to help meet these goals.
We are living in the age of consumption, an ever-growing population is buying twice as much clothing and wearing it half as long as we did 10-20 years ago. Each year, we produce >100 billion garments, while we dispose >48 million tons of clothing of which 73% goes straight to landfill/incineration. With global fashion consumption projected to grow 62% from 2015 to 2030, so will its associated environmental footprint (water, CO2 emissions, chemicals/pollutants, waste). This is not sustainable. If we want to reach the fashion industry 2030 climate targets and stay within planetary boundaries, we need new circular solutions at scale, and we need them now!
Can you explain the process?
Recover recycles cotton waste materials through a mechanical process – by shredding the fabric back into fibers. These recycled cotton fibers are then blended with other fibers (like organic cotton or recycled polyester) to give more strength and performance and used to create new yarn, fabric, and products. Recover’s technology therefore has its impact in reducing the need to grow more virgin cotton while also reducing the amount of textile waste in landfills and incineration.
Today, our main raw material is textile fabric waste from garment manufacturing (post industrial waste). However, in the coming years we aim to scale up the recycling of post-consumer garments. Currently less than 1% of post-consumer garments are recycled back into new fashion products. Recover is working with key industry stakeholders to drive change and establish a new circular supply chain that will allow us to dedicate 1/3rd of our production capacity to post consumer recycling by 2025. This would mean recycling ±425 million post-consumer garments to produce enough recycled fiber for ±700 million new garments each year.
In addition to recycling textile waste, Recover has created the ColorBlend system, which allows us to create any kind of colored fiber with high accuracy without adding any water or chemicals. We use the color that is already in the textile waste and combine it with low impact dyed synthetic carrier fibers. The products created from this fiber will already have a color and don’t need to be dyed anymore, saving a lot of water, chemicals and also costs in the manufacturing process.
Is there a quality difference between recycled and virgin cotton?
Recover has spent the last decades innovating our recycling system, with all the core and supporting technologies and processes to be able to offer the best in class recycled fibres from a quality and sustainability standpoint.
Recover has optimized the process as much as possible but the mechanical recycling process does still decrease the length and therefore quality of the fibers a bit compared to virgin. This is similar to recycled PET that is now also widely used to create garments. Similar to RPET, this small quality difference at fiber level wouldn’t be noticeable at fabric or product level by consumers. This is also because we keep working closely with the supply chain to innovate and create the best possible quality products from recycled fibers.
How does recovering textiles save water use & reduce pollution?
We use textile waste as a raw material resource, diverting it from landfill and incineration, and transforming it into sustainable recycled fibers. Recover cotton fiber is dye-free and our cotton recycling takes almost zero water. For instance, a t-shirt made with 50% Recover recycled cotton, reduces water use by 50%, taking 1350 liters of water instead of the regular 2700 liters to make.
In addition, Recover ColorBlend products already have a color and do not have to be dyed later on. This eliminates the use of dyes, chemicals, and water, and prevents possible water pollution as a result further down in the supply chain.
How does Recover reduce its energy use and CO2 emissions?
Growing cotton takes energy and has a CO2 impact. Using Recover recycled cotton can eliminate these impacts for a large part. The Recover process does of course also consume energy and generate emissions. To limit the impact here, 25% of Recover’s plant in Spain is powered by solar energy and the use of renewable energy is part of the organizations goals as they expand capacity.
How do you practice being sustainable in your everyday life?
Going Green: I vote green which I think is very important as policy is a key driver for sustainability. I also choose a sustainable bank and also purchase my electricity from a supplier that generates renewable energy.
Making Sustainable Choices When It Comes To Food: I try to eat organic, local food as much as possible and limit my consumption of meat and fish. I always pride myself to make a nice meal out of all kinds of leftovers to eliminate food waste.
Shopping Second Hand: In general, I also try to limit consumption where I can, or see if I can buy second hand. Not only for clothes but also for furniture. I love thrift shops, you can find real treasures there.
Transportation: Since I live in Amsterdam, my main mode of transportation is my bicycle. When I travel by plane I always try to compensate the CO2 by supporting projects that plant trees.
