Retailers and fashion designers agree to cut environmental impact of clothing
Waste & recycling news – by GreenWise staff
11th February 2014
A group of retailers and fashion designers, which collectively represent 40 per cent of UK clothing sales, have pledged to a 15 per cent reduction in the environmental impact of their products by 2020.
The Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP) brings together more than 50 organisations including leading fashion outlets M&S, Next, Asos and Tesco, fashion designers, including Stella MacCartney, recyclers and charities. It aims to cut carbon, water and waste to landfill by 15 per cent measured over the lifecycle of the clothing. It also pledges to reduce waste arising, per tonne of clothing by 3.5 per cent 2020 (compared to 2012). It is being led by WRAP, the Government-backed programme tackling waste created by Britain’s homes and businesses.
“We spend billions on clothes every year that we are not getting the most out of and that’s bad for our wallets and the environment. By working across the lifecycle and mobilising industry and consumer action, we can achieve amazing results,” said WRAP chief executive, Liz Goodwin.
Footprint calculator
Online knowledge hub
Around 350,000 tonnes of clothing, worth £140 million, still ends up in landfill each year in the UK and WRAP estimates the average UK household owns around £4,000 worth of clothes, about 30 per cent of which it hasn’t been worn in the last year. Alongside their own sector-wide targets, WRAP and signatories and supporters of SCAP are therefore launching a campaign, Love Your Clothes, to get consumers to stop throwing away their garments and instead repair them, sell or give them away or recycle them.
Key action areas
WRAP’s research has identified three key actions for the clothing industry to undertake to meet its 2020 SCAP commitments. These are to use lower impact fibres in the production of clothes, to extend the active life of clothes, and to increase re-use and recycling of clothes. These actions would build on successful programmes already launched by some retailers, such as M&S and its Shwopping campaign, which encourages its customers to donate an item of clothing everytime they buy a new one. WRAP said its own studies have shown that a retailer clothing ‘buy back’ scheme will payback within two years.
Footprint calculator
WRAP has developed the ‘SCAP Footprint Calculator’ to help retailers and brands to calculate the carbon, water and waste footprints of their whole garment portfolio and prioritise where to take action.
The tool will also aid recyclers and collectors measure the environmental impact for their processes and impact of changing waste destinations.
Online knowledge hub
In addition, WRAP said it was launching an online Knowledge Hub to help product development teams identify how they can reduce the footprint of individual garments they design and source.
Consumers will also be able to get advice on how to reduce the impact of their clothes by logging onto a dedicated Love Your Clothes website, WRAP said.
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