Here at VisibleArt, we’ve invested a lot of time and energy to ensure our equipment and systems are as environmentally friendly as possible. This industry is notoriously bad news for the planet: the ‘second-biggest industrial polluter behind oil, with textiles accounting for 10% of global carbon emissions’ (Ben Smee for The Guardian). Eek.

We already know that we want to use more organic garments and recycled polyester fabric mixes. This is something we can do fairly easily. We can buy into that ‘less than 1%’ rather than continuing to support the production of natural fibre. ‘Quick style changes and low prices driving greater sales volumes, and the consequent increases in the quantities of raw materials needed to keep up with demand’ (BRC, Climate Action Roadmap), is a completely unsustainable way to carry on. We have noticed though, more recycled organic cotton is being used, and seemingly manufacturers are using the waste material from factories and blending it with virgin organic cotton. ‘The ability to recycle fabric will help close the loop between resource-intensive fabric production and fast-growing piles of textile waste.’ (Ben Smee for The Guardian). That’s a start.

There is a lot of talk about the circular fashion industry. In our heads we’re like, ok, we don’t grow cotton but we have a lot of garments in this country and a lot of waste garments as a by-product. Just seeing the amount we accrue at VA, from incorrect orders and waste samples…and we’re not very big! There must be someone out there shredding and reusing this waste for repurposing garments. Surely someone must see the potential of this unused gold mine!

Sadly, we’re naively still in dreamland. More research has made it clear that it’s a lot more complicated than that. We’ve been chatting with Alan Wheeler from Textile Recycling Association. He said,

Despite what you might see online/in the media (even the sustainable fashion media), the vast majority of recycling that actually goes on is mechanical recycling which involves pulling, shredding or cutting items or fabrics that are to be recycled and using the resultant materials in the manufacturing of new products such as heat and sound insulation, mattress and duvet fillings. Also, cotton t-shirts (or large enough off-cuts) can be used to make industrial wiping cloths.

To recycle clothing back into a fabric or yarn (in the main) requires the development of chemical (or regenerative recycling processes) which despite a number of organisations working on this worldwide (and making grand claims in the media) has yet to become a significant commercial reality. Most of these processes are at the demonstration plant stage or still in the lab.

Post-consumer textile waste (e.g. worn out clothing) is much harder to collect and even though you might think an organic cotton t-shirt is an organic cotton t-shirt, the item itself will contain different dyes, finishes and may have other adornments that need to be removed. On top of that, they will be collected alongside other garment types made from other fibres and blends and these all need to go through a detailed sorting and separation before the recycling can take place.’

We already give our leftover garments, printed and unprinted, to charities to recycle. Our test prints are used until they can no longer be used and then cut up for rags. We’re on the right track, but there’s a long way to go. Can we strive to become a local hub for people/clients to drop off their unwanted clothing items, and we send them off for recycling?

We’ve noticed that the percentage of recycled cotton in a garment is typically 20%, which seems very little considering the amount of waste material we must have to hand. During the recycling process, garments are removed of zips, buttons etc and the leftover material shredded, but in the process, fibre lengths get shortened. If any more than 20% recycled content made up a new garment, the garment performance would be adversely affected, which is of course the opposite of what we are trying to do. We need garments to last for much longer so the waste is minimised. If you can only use 20% of recycled cotton then what happens to the other 80%? That’s still a lot of waste and mattresses to fill!

They seem to have nailed it with recycling plastics back into polyester yarns. We know with modern water-based ink we can bond with polyester. Maybe that’s the answer? Using more easily recyclable yarns and blending them with organic cotton. Making high-standard finished products that last for a long time, can be recycled by being sold second-hand, or recycled into a circular process and made back into a garment.

Waste from textiles is a global problem and we do feel it's our responsibility to educate and try to manoeuvre clients to a better, more sustainable solution. Start with the small steps, whilst long-term solutions are being tried and tested through technology. But we can’t shake the feeling that the only real solution is to ask ourselves…’why are we producing this item of clothing and does it really need to be done!?’ Not the most capitalist and business-minded view, we know…but we’re still looking for a solution, we’ll continue to use organic garments and hopefully, one day soon, technology will find a way to help our man-made mess!

Recyling cotton, down the rabbit hole!