Textile players want to change the disastrous ecological image of the sector, due to CO emissions2 (fifth in the world for different uses), plastic fiber discharges at sea, consumption of water and space necessary for cotton growing, pollution linked to dyes, particularly in Bangladesh and China, not to mention social conditions, even in the clandestine workshops of which the Mafia has made a specialty in Italy.
A collective bringing together Galeries Lafayette, Etam, Petit Bateau, Vestiaire collective, La Redoute, Éram, Bocage, has just undertaken, by 2024, to collect used products for recycling or second-hand resale, to support French production, organic raw materials, etc.
The development of the second-hand market
This reinforces the development of the booming second-hand clothing market, via sites like Vinted, supermarket shelves supplied by the start-up Patatam or the Ding Fring related points of sale of the Relais.
The fact remains that the French textile industry, despite the efforts of its collection and recycling organization Refashion, created by the law of 2007, is far from neutralizing the impact of the 648,000 tonnes of clothing and shoes sold in 2019. Either the equivalent to three giant container ships full to the brim, necessary to deliver an average of thirty-nine pieces of clothing per Frenchman and per year.
20 billion dollars in profits
Only a third of these 648,000 tonnes are collected. Among them, half of the sorted parts are sent back to poor countries in Africa and Asia. The rest is turned into industrial rags, car insulation, mattress padding.
Part becomes thread again. But mixed fibers are impossible to recover, yet a Dutch study showed that 41% of the labels indicate a false composition. In addition, the recovered fibers must be mixed with a majority of new fibers for the weaving to be of quality. Recycling is therefore far from satisfactory.
Brussels should propose, in 2021, that a rate of recycled fibers be imposed in all new textiles, as is already done for plastic bottles. The industry should be able to cope: the global giants of the sector, led by Nike, Zara, LVMH, Kering, Hermes or Adidas, raked in more than $ 20 billion in profits in 2019, according to the McKinsey research firm.
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