In this video, we'll be evaluating design process systems, raw material sourcing, manufacturing, product end-of-life, waste and recycling. Fashion is a great industry. It's high-energy, creative, and contributes positively to society and culture. However, fashion is extremely wasteful. The world is drowning in clothes. So in order to improve, but as a business and a creative endeavor, we must all strive to make fashion process less wasteful. Let's begin by looking at destructive waste management methods. Why would a company purposefully destroy almost $40 million worth of perfectly good merchandise? In fact, it happens all the time. In 2018, it was revealed that Burberry had incinerated $40 million worth of unsold stock as a way to preserve products scarcity and brand exclusivity. Brands and retailers destroying what they call dead stock is nothing new. In fact, many companies use it as a tax write-off. Another company that's partly to blame for this waste is H&M group, who currently churns out 3 billion garments a year. As of 2019, the company was sitting on $4.1 billion worth of unsold clothing, some of which was used as fuel for a power plant in Sweden. After a Danish TV program conducted an investigation, H&M was accused of annually dispatching 13 tons of new unsold clothing each year. They later denied the claim stating that, the apparel had been sent to incineration because of mold or not complying with their strict chemical restrictions. Eventually, the Persson family, who founded and still own the company that decided to do some damage control and help combat this enormous waste. Seven years ago, they launched the H&M Foundation, investing a $180 million to fund projects that solve humanitarian and environmental problems in the fashion industry. The foundation also poured a 100 million into promising new technology called the Green Machine, which allows consumers to recycle clothing the way we recycle Coke cans. This is H&M's latest step to recast themselves from one of fashions biggest polluters into a problem-solver. However, companies dumping their own stock still happens all the time. A recent New York Times story put the spotlight on Nike for slashing and dispensing shoes so they couldn't be worn or resold. A spokesperson will respond that the products didn't meet company standards to restock, recycle, or donate. To put this issue in perspective, a pulse of the fashion industry report stated that fashion generates 4% of the world's waste each year and equals 92 million tons, which is more than toxic e-waste. Let's run down some other facts. Fashion is second only to oil as the world's largest polluter. Through the long supply chains and production, the industry contributes 10% of the world's global greenhouse gas emissions. The US is the world's largest importer of garments with nearly 40% of that apparel shipped from China. Between 2000 and 2014, clothing production doubled. In fact, the average consumer today buy 60% more than they did 15 years ago. However, items are now only kept half as long. Here's another one. Nearly 20% of global waste water is produced by the fashion industry. Despite only 3% of the world's arable land, cotton farming is responsible for 24% of insecticides and 11% of pesticides. It takes more than 5,000 gallons of water just to manufacture a t-shirt and a pair of jeans. An NPR report stated that 15.1 million tons of textile waste was generated in 2013, with 12.8 million tons discarded. That means about 15% of fabric intended for clothing, winds up on the cutting floor room. This waste rate has been tolerated industry-wide for decades. One solution to combat this waste is recycling. However, there are many missed opportunities. For instance, the average consumer throws away 70 pounds of clothing per year that could be recycled. Some communities have textile recycling programs with 85% of this waste going to landfills. That equals about 5% of the total landfill space and that amount is growing. This is a problem as landfill space is expensive and hard to find. In fact, studies show that 95% of landfill textile waste could be recycled. Hopefully, recycling becomes more commonplace. Just by using recycled cotton, you can save 20,000 liters of water per kilogram. Another solution is wearing secondhand clothing. Everyone loves a good thrift store find, right? That seems to be the case in the US as is the largest exporter of secondhand clothing at over a billion pounds each year. Over 70% of the world's population uses secondhand clothes. But as consumers, we can do better. In the UK alone, there's an estimated $46.7 billion worth of unworn clothing just sitting in people's closets. That's a staggering number to contemplate. Apart from the ones caused by land and water use, most textile industry impacts occur during this stages after fiber production, yarn spinning, weaving and knitting, finishing and dying. Since textiles are very complex materials, it's unlikely that a single technology will solve the global need for efficient textile recycling. In order to maximize end-of-life textiles, a range of recycling technologies must be applied. Hopefully we'll get there soon. Thanks for watching. See you soon.
