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Tag: Jeans Redesign

  • Jeans Redesign–An Evaluation On Recycled Content Commitments

    Jeans Redesign–An Evaluation On Recycled Content Commitments

    Jeans Redesign project by Make Fashion Ciruclar initiative of Ellen Macarthur Foundation provides a launch pad to ensure all clothing is made from safe and renewable materials, and all clothing items are used more and made to be made again. Using jeans as a starting point, Make Fashion Circular aims to initiate actions that contribute to the reduction of waste and pollution, and support the protection of natural resources by establishing minimum requirements which are set out in the form of Guidelines. They have brought together over 80 experts in jeans production from across academia, brands, retailers, manufacturing, collectors, sorters, and NGOs to define collectively what good looks like for the future of jeans. From this shared vision a set of guidelines has emerged that establish ambitious steps for jeans manufacturing and production.  The guidelines provide minimum requirements for jeans on durability, material heath, recyclability, and traceability. Out of these four aspects, we focus on Recyclability in this article .

    Recyclability

    Recyclability focuses on re-use and re-cycling of components. For this :

    • Jeans should be made with a minimum of 98% cellulose based fibres by weight : This subsection applies to all organisations (brands, retailers, garment manufacturers, and fabric mills)
    • Metal rivets should be designed out , or reduced to a minimum : This subsection only applies to brands, retailers, and garment manufacturers
    • Any additional material added to the jeans , should be easy to disassemble : This subsection applies to all organisations (brands, retailers, garment manufacturers, and fabric mills)

    All the participants have to voluntarily declare their adherence to these 3 points in writing .
    However, there is one more Optional Guideline in RECYCLABILITY which is not mandatory and only those participants who are voluntarily wanting to declare may do so . This is regarding their usage of Pre/ Post Consumer Recycled content and their commitments to use them . Usage of recycled fibers and materials not only ensures that we have less wastage but also reduced pressure on mother earth to produce more  . It is one of the most important aspect of sustainability .

    We went deeper into this optional requirement from the Jeans Redesign September 2020 report  to see what brands, manufacturers and fabric mills are committing themselves to for using recycled components. Naturally , we did not expect participants to obligate themselves to ambitious goals as using recycled materials is dependent on so many factors. Brands are the driving force for this activity and manufacturers and mills follow. However, there are visionary companies who wish to take this on their own accord and move forward . Larger the company, more complex are the operations are for them and understandably more difficult to commit. However, it would be a good idea to check out which brands, manufacturers and mills have taken the step forward on their own . We also focused on MINIMUM commitments and not MAXIMUM. Some of the participants displayed their % wise goals of maximum usage of recycled content  which does not really make any sense as minimum commitment could still be zero. Eg Guess committed to a maximum of 30% Recycled content besides many others who mentioned their commitments in similar way. We ignored those companies in the list below :

    Brands

    Out of 28 brands who showed in this report as participants, expectedly there were no large retailers like H&M, Inditex, Gap etc. Only smaller brands like Boyish Jeans , Mud Jeans, HNST etc were there among the 5 brands that committed themselves to certain targets. Boyish jeans made a huge obligation of using 43% Pre or Post consumer recycled content which is very  high by any standard. Mud jeans also stood apart with their 23% minimum recycled content usage declaration. HNST at 21% and Organic Basics at 21% and 10% were also frontrunners in this regard.

    Recycled Content Brands - Jeans Redesign

    Garment Manufacturers

    Garment manufacturing is a totally different ball game as the companies are dependent on the orders from the brands and it is not easy for them to make commitments on recycled content in fabrics. The fabrics are normally nominated by the brands and the manufacturer simply complies with the order. However, there are companies who have been working with visionary brands and have themselves realized the importance of using recycled fibers. Based on their own vision and their brands’ requirements , some of the large groups have committed themselves to minimum usage of recycled content in the fabrics that they use. Hirdaramani group of Sri Lanka stands out with a voluntarily declaration of using minimum 10% recycled content in the fabrics they use. Similarly Arvind denim from India, AGI denim , Soorty and DCC  from Pakistan, Kipas from Turkey and others have obligated themselves to use minimum 5% recycled fibers.

    GARMENT MANUFACTURERS - RECYCLABILITY JEANS REDESIGN

     

    Fabric Mills

    Out of the 22 fabric mills who are members in the aforesaid Ellen Macarthur report,  it is encouraging to see that 10 mills have shared their commitments on recycled fibers. Out of these mills, DNM Textile from Egypt stood at the top mentioning that would be using at least 20% post consumer recycled content in their fabrics. House of Gold mentions that they are already using 10% pre consumer content and would look for a higher target of 50% pre consumer recycled content in all the fabrics that they will produce. We have 8 other companies from China, Pakistan and India who have given a target of using 5% Post Consumer content in their fabrics .

    FABRIC MILLS- RECYCLABILITY JEANS REDESIGN

    Jeans Redesign neither  conducts any audit of the declared figures nor does it take any warranty to the accuracy of the reported data. Hence all information mentioned is self reported and self audited by participants. Inspite of this , it is heartening to note that the major corporates are coming forward to make voluntary commitments . These declarations made at the highest executive level does prompts a whole company to move in the direction of their accomplishment and sets in motion the peer pressure for others . We hope that we shall be , in near future, looking at more deeper resolves from major retailers who are the prime movers in the supply chain and the impact of their commitments will be felt across the industry.

    Check out the full  Sept’20 report by ELLEN MACARTHUR FOUNDATION from which the above article has been created. 

  • Brands, Fabric Mills & Manufacturers Join Jeans Redesign Initiative

    Brands, Fabric Mills & Manufacturers Join Jeans Redesign Initiative

    In February 2019, Make Fashion Circular brought together a group of industry experts in an intensive workshop, to collaboratively test and further develop a common vision of what good looks like for jeans. As an outcome of the workshop, a draft set of Guidelines were produced for the Jeans Redesign, these have been tested and iterated with representatives from brands, garment manufacturers, fabric mills, recyclers, and academics in addition to those present on the day.
    The result of this work is a set of co-developed Guidelines that define a starting point for the industry to design and produce jeans in accordance with the principles of a circular economy at scale. The Guidelines are divided into four areas: durability, material health, recyclability, and traceability. This document lays out the definition of terms in each area, the detailed requirements that must be achieved as a minimum, and the process for validating these achievements.

    Thus The Ellen MacArthur foundation launched its JEANS REDESIGN initiative.This initiative aims to make the jeans manufacturing process a circular process.This initiative promises to  meet guidelines including minimum requirements on garment long lasting capability , using material which is good for environment and the workers , recyclability and traceability. The Jeans Redesign was created by Make Fashion Circular Initiative by British Circular Economy Charity.The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has extended these norms to allow fabric mills and manufacturers to join the project.

    GUIDELINES

    Durability – Garments should have labels with clear information. Jeans should withstand a minimum of 30 home laundries.

    Health – Jeans manufacturing should be free of chemicals and organic methods must be used to ensure the environment safety.

    Recyclability – The materials or accessories used in the jeans should be easily removable for re-use and re-cycle. Jeans should be made with 98% cellulose fibers.

    Traceability – The garments with the Jeans Redesign logo should be traceable and easily available.

    The foundation was launched in 2010 to make the economy circular. Make Fashion Circular was launched by UK charity the Ellen MacArthur Foundation at the Copenhagen Fashion Summit 2018.

    For joining the Jeans Redesign initiative, the mills must fulfill the guidelines for ZDHC (Zero Discharge Hazardous Chemicals) including testing and produce less than 0.025 MN of wastewater per yard.This initiative aims to improve jeans manufacturing, track the waste management  and is developed for denim heads from brands, retailers, manufacturers, sorters etc.

    “More companies joining the Jeans Redesign demonstrates the appetite in the industry for practical solutions that support the transition to a thriving fashion industry, where all our clothes are used for longer, are made from safe and renewable materials, and are made to be made again. This kind of industrywide shift needs companies from across fashion to work together,” Make Fashion Circular’s Francois Souchet said in a recent statement.

    How To Participate

    To take part in the Project, Participants must specify how their jeans will meet the Jeans Redesign Guidelines, and how they intend to accelerate progress against the Guidelines beyond the minimum requirements set out.
    Participants will detail the validation methods that will be used to confirm the Guidelines have been met. This information will be provided on the Participation Form and, unless otherwise stated, will be publicly disclosed as part of the reporting progress by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation on behalf of Make Fashion Circular.
    Participants are encouraged to disclose the percentage of jeans produced that will meet the Guidelines in either their annual report or sustainability report to offer a benchmark for progress. In addition, Participants are requested to disclose the number of their jeans produced that will meet the Guidelines to Make Fashion Circular which will publish the figure as an aggregated number for all Participants.
    By the end of May 2021, Participants will be required to submit the Report Form to Make Fashion Circular to confirm that they have met the initial agreed specifications, to share any deviations from this original specification, and to provide details of how these meet each element of the criteria. To comply with its charitable objectives, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation on behalf of Make Fashion Circular will make the information submitted on the Report Form public on the Make Fashion Circular website. Make Fashion Circular encourages third-party verification or assurance of reported data where appropriate. If Participants confirm this has been obtained, this will be included alongside the Participant’s reported data. Make Fashion Circular do not verify or audit the data provided to it, and this is then reported on an ‘as is’ basis.
    Participants need to  provide high-level information about the type of third-party organisation who will
    perform the verification or assurance exercise, and any plans for future development of verification or assurance processes for the data reported. It is the responsibility of each Participant to make available on request information on the third-party verification that confirms compliance with any element of the requirements set out in Guidelines. Participants meeting the logo terms and conditions will be granted permission to use the Jeans Redesign logo on jeans produced in line with the Guidelines. Use of the Jeans
    Redesign logo will be reassessed yearly, based on compliance with reporting requirements.

    Participants

    Over thirty leading brands, manufacturers and fabric mills are using the Guidelines to make jeans that will be available on the market by Autumn 2020. The members currently joined the foundation include H&M, Tommy Hilfiger, Lee,Guess, Ateliers and Repairs as Brands. Advance denim mill, Artistic Miliners, GAP,  Cone Denim, House of Gold (through Blue Diamond: Xingtai H&J Textiles Co. Ltd), Prosperity Textiles, Soorty as Fabric Mills. BESTSELLER (through the VERO MODA brand), Boyish Jeans, C&A, GAP, Hirdaramani, H&M Group (through the H&M and Weekday brands), Saitex , HNST, Kipas, Lee®, Mud Jeans, Arvind Limited as manufacturers.