This is the first stage during the creation of a garment. The design is a large part in determining how complex the last stage, recycling will be. The more detailed the design is, the harder it may be to recycle because additions such as zippers, buttons, belts, embellishments, etc. need to be separated from the fabric first. This doesn’t necessarily mean a design has to ban all details, but these elements can be added in a way that make them easy to be disassembled during the recycling process. Additionally, blends of fabrics such as a garments made of 30% spandex and 70% cotton often are difficult to recycle or may not be recyclable at all. The best method of recycling is chemical recycling which creates an end product of even better quality than clothes made from virgin fibres. However, this process is only available for textiles made of one material. Very few mixed material garments are recycled and will be transformed into a new product that is of lesser quality if it is recycled. This decreases the amount of times clothes can be recycled using a process that requires more energy to separate the mixed materials. The specific types of materials used also play a large role in how sustainable a garment will be due to natural materials being more biodegradable than synthetics. Common synthetic fibers include nylon, acrylic, polyester, and rayon while some natural fibers are cotton, wool, silk, hemp, and flax or linen. Polyester takes 200 years to break down while wool can take six months. Additives such as dyes, chemicals, or prints also make the recycling process harder to complete. These concerns are all easily avoidable in the design stage just by making sure details can be easily disassembled, only one type of fiber is used which is natural, and dyes/ prints are added without the use of chemicals.

According to the sustainability consultant, Andrew Savitz, there are two differed arguments being made against sustainability. One group of people, cynics, believe the power of change should be within the hands of government while the skeptics group put responsibility on businesses. Although the government can help regulate sustainability, most power for change is really in consumers that in turn demand businesses to change. Businesses always respond to the demand of its consumers; therefore, those who do not implement sustainability on their own will not survive anyway. It is essential for fashion brands to get with the times and invest in sustainable business practices to ensure long term growth and future profit.

Resources

King, Rachel. “How The Fashion Industry Is Greening Its Operation” GreenBiz. 28 July 2008

https://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/07/28/how-fashion-industry-greening-its-operation

Savitz, Andrew. The Triple Bottom Line . San Francisco, Jossey-Bass, 2014