Fabric waste can have a huge environmental impact if consumers continue to wear and discard, writes Meera Murugesan.
THE next time you clear out your closet, give a thought to where your unwanted clothing ends up.
Fast fashion with its buy, wear and discard approach is a major contributor to fabric waste which is quickly filling up landfills.
According to Kloth Data 2019, Malaysians produce a whopping 2,000 tonnes of textile waste, including other wearable products daily, which ends up in landfills.
When fabric or textile waste decomposes, it releases a potent and harmful greenhouse gas called methane.
Isn’t it time you gave more thought to how much clothing you buy on a regular basis and how you dispose unwanted items?
The best way to reduce this impact on the environment is to ensure that unwanted clothing and fabric is reused in an efficient manner.
Project Denim Angel, initiated by the Voir Group through Voir Gallery, its multi-brands urban concept store, is one such initiative.
First started in March last year, it is a CSR initiative by Voir to educate consumers on fabric waste as well as how to use the right channels to give a second chance to fabrics, especially denim.
The first phase of this project was limited to Voir stores in the Klang Valley where bins were placed for consumers to drop off or donate unwanted denim clothing.
“When we first launched the project, our focus was on denim because we sell a lot of denim clothing. But the second time around, we want to make a bigger impact,” says Voir Group general manager of group marketing Jenny Lim.
MAKING A CHANGE
For Project Denim Angel 2.0, the scope has expanded. Voir has garnered support from many partners such as shopping malls, government agencies, NGOs, universities and corporate companies that believe in the same movement.
The project has now expanded beyond Voir stores to public premises.
By teaming up with Kloth Cares, a social entrepreneurship which aims to keep fabrics out of landfills, and Lifeline Clothing, a fabric recycling operator, Project Denim Angel 2.0 can now collect all kinds of fabric, not just denim, as well as shoes, bags, belts, linen and soft toys.
Also part of the initiative is Suri, a social enterprise aimed at empowering single mothers which produces creative, upcycled denim accessories and attire.
“Many of us have fabric waste in our homes and we need to ensure that this waste stays out of landfills and is channelled to the proper places to be processed. We have made it our mission to reduce downstream fabric waste and we are passionate about achieving our goals,” stresses Lim.
Nik Suzila Nik Hassan, co-founder of Kloth Cares, says synthetic fabrics can take between 20 and 200 years to decompose, depending on their structure and composition and almost 95 per cent of unwanted clothing can actually be recycled.
“We really need to start looking at our unwanted clothing in a different way,” she adds.
Fabric or textile waste has many uses. It can be turned into industrial cleaning cloths to wipe or clean machinery, used for fibre reclamation, upcycled into new garments or processed into biofuel which has less carbon dioxide emission.
Project Denim Angel 2.0 collection bins can be found at major shopping malls, including Mid Valley Megamall, Sunway Velocity, IOI City Mall and Paradigm Mall.
The bins will also be placed at two locations in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi as well as selected co-working and private office spaces and common ground locations in the Klang Valley.
TEXTILE FAST FACTS
•Up to 95 per cent of textiles that end up in landfills each year can actually be recycled.
•Globally, almost 20 per cent of waste water is produced by the fashion industry.
•An astounding 20,000 litres of water is needed to produce just one kilogramme of cotton.
•It takes more than 5,000 gallons of water to manufacture just one T-shirt and a pair of jeans.
•The average number of times a piece of clothing is worn before being discarded has decreased by 36 per cent in the last 15 years.
•Around 15 per cent of fabric meant for clothing ends up on the cutting room floor.
Sources:edgeexpo.com, supplychaindive.com