The clothing industry is the opposite of sustainable. It’s all about selling as many of the season’s must-haves as possible, which means growing more cotton that uses more water and spraying more chemicals and pumping more oil to power the factories, etc. Then once the garments are in consumers’ possession, they’re worn for about a year in most cases, then thrown away where they take up space in landfills or are incinerated, which emits more greenhouse gases.
Fortunately, now a company called re:newcell is working hard to close the loop. It has developed a method that can recycle cotton and viscose to a satisfactory quality on a large enough scale to be useful. The technology dissolves natural fibers, like used cotton, into a new, biodegradable raw material it calls Circulose pulp. This material can be turned into textile fiber and fed into the textile production cycle.
re:newcell says on its website:
There is a way to put fashion first without putting the environment second. There is a way to turn used cotton and viscose into new biodegradable pulp, new fibers, new yarn, new fabrics, and new garments that can be produced and worn with a clear conscience. Because we have closed the loop. Recycling clothes finally works. Welcome to re:newcell, where fashion becomes sustainable.
Now, the legendary denim company, Levi’s is joining forces with this young Swedish brand by using the revolutionary new material to provide customers with a more sustainable pair of jeans – called WellThread 502 jeans.
Paul Dillinger, Levi’s VP of Global Product Innovation and Premium Collection Design, said:
I always prefer a simple solution, but we simply cannot keep growing more cotton to meet growing consumer demand. The world’s supply of fresh water is limited, and cotton is a thirsty crop. Until consumption can be re-aligned with sustainable supply, it’s incumbent upon the industry to activate garment waste as a material resource…and there’s plenty of waste to activate.
This is a sustainability challenge that we’ve been wrestling with for years, so it’s really exciting to see an aspirational concept become a familiar pair of Levi’s jeans that consumers can actually buy and wear. The fashion industry has long been chasing the potential of the ‘circular economy.’ The jeans we’ve made in collaboration with re:newcell proves that it can be done.
WellThread 502 jeans are made with 40% Circulose and 60% organic cotton. The Circulose is half recycled denim, half sustainably-sourced viscose. The jeans feel like the brand’s traditional offerings but are unlike anything it’s ever produced in its 167-year history. Of course, the jeans are designed to go back into re:newcell’s recovery system, so they’re entirely made of natural materials – cotton trims, threads, backings, and all.
Jeans made with recycled material reduce CO2 emissions and the stress on natural resources like water. But re:newcell takes things to the next level by recovering and reusing chemicals used in the recycling process and running the facility on renewable energy. Furthermore, the recycling process uses a lot less water than growing cotton.
The world’s population is expected to increase to 8.5 billion people by 2030 – meaning even more clothes will be needed. It’s collaborations like this between Levi’s and re:newcell that will pave the way for a sustainable approach to dealing with the inevitable rise of appeal consumption. By producing just one kilo of clothing from recycled materials instead of virgin sources, it saves thousands of liters of water and decreases greenhouse gas emissions to help curb climate change.
There’s another fashion company making clothes from recycled material called Rapanui. It does it all – makes the clothes, collects, and re-processes them back into new items to sell. It even allows anyone to use their system through a free online platform called Teemill. It wants to ensure that new brands can be sustainable too. Isn’t that great?
