We have seen that recycling clothes is at the heart of the circular fashion model. Even if textile waste represents a big issue worldwide due to the enormous amount of clothes that are discarded each year, less than 1% of the global clothing is recycled to create new textiles, fostering linear business models with negative environmental effects.
Why should the linear business model of fashion be replaced by the circular economy?
Fashion is currently a linear business model in which the production and consumption of clothing are maximized. Linear economy means we excessively exploit resources, make products, use them for a short time, throw them away when we no longer want them, and repeat the process. Most textiles, around 85% in the United States and 87% in Europe, are landfilled or incinerated at the end of their life cycle.
Since fashion negatively impacts the planet and its people and resources are limited, this traditional linear model needs to be replaced by circular fashion. In the circular economy, garments are repaired, redesigned, resold, or donated, and when they can no longer be worn, they are recycled, making new materials out of the old ones and closing the loop. Circular fashion could hence reduce waste and pollution and limit the extraction of virgin raw materials.
Textile waste can be reduced thanks to recycled denim
Candiani Denim has partnered with Humana People to People Italia and Filatura Astro to launch the PCR (post-consumer recycled) program, in which old denim garments are turned into recycled denim to make new clothes and reduce textile waste.
Filatura Astro
Filatura Astro is our partner in shredding and spinning the pre-processed garments collected by Humana Italia into yarns. Born in 1956 as a traditional carding mill to produce regenerated colored yarns, the firm is nowadays equipped with the most progressive machinery and carries out all the manufacturing steps, from tearing to spinning, in-house.
For over 60 years, Filatura Astro has reused and recycled pre-dyed cotton and wool scraps sorted by color, manufacturing 100% Made in Italy eco-sustainable products. Its scrupulous production process made it earn the Global Recycle Standard (GRS) and STANDARD 100 by OEKO-TEX® certifications.
GRS is one of the world’s leading non-profit organizations promoting responsible and sustainable development in the textile industry. It certifies those products obtained from recycled materials in compliance with environmental and social standards along the entire production chain.
OEKO-TEX® is an independent international system to control and certify raw materials, semi-finished, and finished products at all levels of processing in the textile industry. The STANDARD 100 by OEKO-TEX® contributes to ensuring product safety from the consumer's point of view.
