Ever wondered what happens to your clothes after you throw them away?
Vogue spoke with designers and brands who are paving the way for recycled and upcycled fashion in India to understand what happens to your clothes once you throw them away
As voracious consumers of fashion, we’re quick in purchasing clothes that catch our fancy, and equally swift in discarding them. But have we ever given a thought to where those clothes are ending up? The staggering statistics of the quantity of clothes that end up in landfills is not news—in fact, what is new information is that landfills are brimming with so much urban waste that by 2050, India is reportedly going to need a landfill that’s the size of its capital, New Delhi (as claimed by a joint report by Assocham and accounting firm PwC).
The telling numbers and warning signs cannot be ignored anymore by consumers and companies alike. Which is why, designers and brands are stepping forward now more than ever to intervene. Kriti Tula is one such name, whose contemporary label Doodlage is upcycling factory waste into innovative designs. “In a linear fashion model, it’s estimated that 73 per cent of all our clothes end up in landfill for various reasons like the lack of collection systems and ineffective redistribution. There are no large-scale solutions available to recycle blended yarns at the moment,” explains Tula. “In India, the end of the line for our garments is limited to charity, which eventually fill up local landfills,” she states.
Ironically, instead of recycling the fabrics and textiles that are over-loading India’s landfills, we are importing huge quantities of second-hand clothing from countries all over the world including the US and the UK, all of which are ending up in Haryana’s Panipat area. “When we dispose our clothes, they either end up in landfills or are sold again. However, now there are many recycling mills where second-hand clothing and fabrics from all over the world are segregated, torn apart to remove buttons, zippers and labels, and then treated to be re-purposed and used as yarn. This yarn is used to create inexpensive blankets and carpets that are sold at rock-bottom prices,” explains designer Amit Aggarwal, who works with waste material to design his couture collections.
The way around
How does Tula hope to make a difference with her ethical label? “We have spent a lot of time understanding fabric waste in the fashion industry—both post-consumer and post-production—and the current solutions available,” says Tula. “At Doodlage, we approach circularity holistically. Our raw material is factory waste. Scraps are patched together to create collections in ethical spaces, with fair wages given to artisans. For fabrics that are too small to be patched together, we create textures that are used to make bags and home accessories. The last stage is recycling to make paper for stationery products,” says Tula. Doodlage’s products also come packed in bio plastics that are 100 per cent biodegradable, with the final packaging layer being a reusable fabric tote bag made from their own leftovers.
Reuse, reduce, recycle, repeat
What goes around comes around, especially in fashion. Ask Swedish multinational retail company H&M, who launched the Garment Collection Program in 2013, a global initiative wherein consumers are encouraged to bring in their old clothes in lieu of a 15 per cent discount voucher. “95 per cent of clothes that get thrown away could be re-worn, reused or recycled,” says Dhatri Bhatt, spokesperson at H&M. “The Garment Collection Program offers an easy solution for our customers to leave their old, unwanted clothing and home textiles (of any brand, in any condition) at the recycling box at any H&M store.” What is astounding to note is the amount of textiles H&M collected. “The equivalent of 89 million T-shirts were collected in 2017,” reveals Bhatt. The initiative is evidently successful, and to make the most of it, H&M made it their short term goal to minimise (and avoid, as much as possible) the waste that goes to landfill.
So what actually happens to the textiles after the customers discard them in the recycling boxes? “The clothes are then segregated into three categories: Re-wear (clothes that can be worn again are marketed worldwide as second-hand); Reuse (old clothes and textiles that are no longer suitable to wear are converted into other products, such as cleaning cloths); Recycle (textiles that can’t be reused get a new chance as textile fibres or are used to manufacture products such as damping and insulating materials for the auto industry),” explains Bhatt. The brand also launched a Conscious Collection in 2018, which was made using environmentally smarter materials and came marked with a green hang tag.
Image: H&M’s Conscious collection 2018
For Aggarwal, his entire creative process is initiated with a central recycled material around which he develops his collection. “I enjoy the material play that goes into the making of our clothes, as well as the various textures which are developed through materials that aren’t a regular find in the market,” he says.
Recycling vs upcycling
The concept of recycling brings us to its relatively greener cousin, upcycling. “Upcycling does not break down the properties of the fabric into fibre to change it into another material. Therefore, it is less resource intensive [than recycling],” explains Tula, whose label Doodlage works with both upcycling and recycling, but focuses more on the former.
Aggarwal, on the other hand, understands the benefits of both, and has adopted them as a practice in his design process. “Waste materials are picked up from various industries as leftovers. For us, it is a sustainable and aesthetic choice that we make when utilising such materials,” he explains. The unique aspect, though, is how the couturier combines the recycled materials with heritage vintage fabrics like Benarasi, Patola and phulkari textiles, and reinvents them into modern garments.
“We live in a world where a product’s life cycle can be extended through responsible design ethics, but sustainability is a process and has to be a part of you before you implement it into a collection,” says Aggarwal. Tula agrees. “Sustainability cannot be achieved by simply introducing a new fabric in a short collection. It has to be rooted in the DNA of the brand and communicated with this entirety to the consumer,” she adds.
Is renewable fashion the need of the hour?
Whether our clothes are recycled into new textiles or upcycled into contemporary designs, it’s crucial that we choose biodegradable and 100 per cent environmentally friendly fabrics, like organic cotton, hemp, jute and silk, in the long term. And H&M is striving to achieve this exact same outcome. “By 2020, the H&M group aims to source 100 per cent sustainable cotton, and by 2030, we’re looking at 100 per cent recycled or other sustainably sourced materials. Today, 35 per cent of all materials we use in our products are recycled or sustainably sourced,” says Bhatt.
“Having a circular approach to how products are made and used is important—with the goal being to only use recycled/sustainably sourced materials and renewable energy in all our direct operation—all the while decreasing the dependence on virgin resources, chemicals, energy, water and minimising the amount of materials that end up as waste,” explains Bhatt.
How can you be a conscious consumer of fashion?
The answer may lie in adopting a slow lifestyle that respects the value of clothes and maximises its longevity. Additionally, it’s important for brands and designers to provide easier options for consumers to recycle. “We are working to raise funds to build post-consumer waste management in India,” says Tula. “This will allow consumers to send back to us garments that can be recycled, upcycled or resold, depending on the garment itself.”
Other options include making a note of swap websites and reselling portals that can help extend the life of each garment by 20-30 years. “We need to create more alternatives to fast fashion, and make them accessible and affordable to allow consumers to make a switch. It all starts with raising more awareness about the impact of fashion,” concludes Tula.
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