Some “eco-friendly” brands are not really “sustainable” after all
The Changing Markets Foundation made a survey of different brands to see how their sustainable brands really ranked in “eco-friendly” parameters and many of them fell short. However, none of these companies have made a commitment to really phase out the use of synthetics in their brands.
As a matter of fact, less than half of the companies surveyed were transparent about the real amount of synthetics used in their clothing. The survey had four categories, ‘frontrunners’, ‘could do better’, ‘trailing behind’, and ‘red zone’. For example, H&M’s ‘Conscious-Collection’ brand used more synthetics than their main collection. Others like Hugo Boss and Colours of Benetton were classified as ‘could do better’ category and Nike under ‘trailed behind’. Some companies such as Gap, Lululemon, The North Face; among others, simply refused to provide any kind of data. With this information, it is clear that many companies who claim to be “eco-friendly” brands are not really “sustainable” after all.
Although we are in 2021 and all the technology advancements, only 20-30% of fibre-to-fibre recycled material can be used in the making of new clothing. And the PET bottles recycled into clothes has increased from 9% to 14% in the past 10 years. Of the surveyed companies, 85% are aiming to use recycled polyester but from PET bottles.
Without a doubt, the fast-fashion industry, producing cheap clothing has relied heavily on cheap synthetic fibers to produce their mass amounts of “fashionable” clothing. These synthetic fibers are tapping into fossil fuels which is creating a problem for the environment and for the future of planet earth.
See what Garson & Shaw is doing about recycling and reusing clothing, in order to save fossil fuels.