What do the fashion and textiles products consume vast amounts of?
What does this have negative impacts on?
The environment and the lives of workers on the industry
What does sustainable fashion seek?
To minimise these negative effects and is part of the growing trend towards sustainability in terms of human impact on the environment and social responsibility
What do designers and manufacturers have a responsibility to do?
To ensure products are made from sustainable materials and components
What sustainable materials/components can be produced by recycling waste?
What sustainable materials/components can be produced by organic fibre production?
What sustainable materials/components can be produced by sustainable sourcing?
What sustainable materials/components can be produced by a closed loop production?
What sustainable materials/components can be produced by modern fibre and fabric developments?
What sustainable materials/components can be produced by biodegrade fibres?
What sustainable materials/components can be produced by fibres made with reduced water consumption?
What sustainable materials/components can be produced by fibres made with renewable energy?
What sustainable materials/components can be produced by humanely produced fibres?
What else could also have a significant impact of waste?
The packaging of textile products
What do designers and manufacturers need to consider for packaging?
What can be reduced by making every stage of production more efficient?
The use of energy and resources, more up to date technologies can be used to combine processes, and modern developments in fibres can reduce the need for some processes
How are products designed?
Generally, to conserve energy and materials for economic reasons, however advances in technology have made or possible to design more sustainable products
What does fast fashion respond to?
Consumers demands for the latest trends, production and distribution has to be rapid to keep up with this demand as stock needs to be replenished quickly
What leads to large amounts of waste?
Fast fashion is discarded just as quickly, these are incinerated or destined for landfills
What should consumers be encouraged to do?
To recycle more and products need to be designed with recyclable materials in order to minimise impact on the environment
What is cradle-to-cradle?
Clothing that can be developed with components that can be recycled and fibres that can be reclaimed and reused in a closed loop system
What source and environmental concerns are there for natural fibres?
Source: plants and animals
EC: Intensive farming
What source and environmental concerns are there for regenerated fibres?
Source: cellulose e.g. wood pulp or cotton waste
EC: deforestation
What source and environmental concerns are there for synthetic fibres?
Source: non renewable fossil fuels
EC: tecyclability