Asian manufacturers, once dubbed the world's factory for clothing, are now welcoming a seismic shift in consumer demand toward sustainable fashion in an effort to slow down the rapid evolution of fashion trends that are filling landfills and hastening climate change.
By 2030, European regulators hope to have regulations in place requiring all textile items marketed within the bloc to be constructed from durable, recyclable fabrics that don't include any dangerous ingredients. Eventually, it seems like the US will do the same, reported South China Morning Post.
Only 12% of clothing is recycled worldwide, and most of it ends up in the trash as a result of rapidly shifting fashion trends, but this is expected to change.
Hong Kong-based TAL Apparels, a trailblazing clothing manufacturer for top international brands, claims the time is near to shift away from the hyperconsumption period in which clothing is purchased and thrown away with each new fashion season.
TAL vice-chair Delman Lee told This Week in Asia that "there's a whole movement of people that wants to get sustainably going in the apparel business."
With the goal of cutting its greenhouse gas emissions in half from their 2018 baseline, TAL claims to have implemented a multifaceted strategy throughout its supply chain to source fabric and raw cotton from countries like Thailand and Vietnam.
Using these inputs, the company creates clothing, providing high-end US fashion labels including JC Penney and Brooks Brothers.
According to Lee, one of the main ways it is achieving the aim is by switching from coal to renewable energy for production. It also encourages its upstream suppliers to do the same for energy-intensive operations like weaving and dyeing.
"A lot of water and heat are used in the fabric mills for weaving and dyeing, and heat is produced using coal," he stated.
TAL decreased its greenhouse gas intensity per unit of production by 21% between 2009 and 2018. This equated to the avoidance of operations-related emissions of 23,450 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, or around 54,292 barrels of oil.
In an effort to lessen its influence on the environment, the corporation has also focused on using superior cotton.
Due to traditional agricultural practices that can result in soil degradation, water scarcity, and the use of hazardous pesticides, the cultivation of cotton, one of the most frequently used natural fibers in the world, can have a substantial impact.
According to Lee, farmers require this kind of commitment because the buzz about sustainability hasn't quite reached the farm level. "We have a project where we work directly with farms that grow regenerative cotton, and we commit to buying cotton from them, so that they can grow it," Lee said.
While organic farming practices prioritize protecting neighboring ecosystems, such as groundwater recharge, and the soil, regenerative farming practices strive to leave the land in a better state than it was in the previous cycle.
Farmers typically receive better pricing for this type of product, but according to Lee, it might take up to two years to fully convert to organic farming practices.
Smaller companies are also preparing for the shift./BGNES