It’s currently the biggest environmental talking point in the textile industry, but how on earth can we start to tackle the problem of microfibre pollution? John Mowbray investigates.
- Written by John Mowbray
Moral fibre 
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Friday, 18 October 2024Lenzing boss aims to navigate economic headwinds
YORK – As he eases into his new role as the CEO of Lenzing, Rohit Aggarwal explains that despite market volatility and uncertainty in the textile sector, he welcomes more stringent environmental regulations, saying that textile-to-textile recycling… -
Wednesday, 09 October 2024Traceable linen - bast of both worlds
With more brands sourcing linen in their spring collections this year, causing prices to triple in recent months, the European flax sector sees opportunities to offer fully traceable linen fabrics free from contamination with hemp or other bast… -
Monday, 07 October 2024Bearing the brunt - Myanmar's garment workers
A combination of stagnant wages, soaring inflation and tumbling exchange rates has left garment workers in crisis-torn Myanmar facing huge challenges to meet even their most basic needs. The minimum wage for has been 4,800 kyat a day since 2018. The… -
Thursday, 03 October 2024Recycled polyester innovation in good shape
North Carolina-based fibre innovator Unifi took some fibre industry experts by surprise when it launched a new 100% recycled filament polyester yarn with 50% textile content – a straightforward replacement for virgin polyester immediately available… -
Wednesday, 02 October 2024From fast fashion – to immediate fashion
INDIA - Tech-driven ‘quick commerce’ is taking India by storm and with huge growth expected, western fashion brands are said to be in talks with platforms driving the immediate delivery of newly ordered goods. Gen Z and millennials in India’s top… -
Tuesday, 01 October 2024Why the electrification of textile manufacturing needs more thought
YORK – The recent call by Fashion Revolution to rapidly electrify textile manufacturing operations through the implementation of renewables needs more careful consideration to avoid unintended rises in CO2 emissions. After several subjective… -
Monday, 23 September 2024Aii and ZDHC plan CO2 and water guidelines
GLOBAL - Leading industry bodies Apparel Impact Institute (Aii) and the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) are working on benchmark guidelines for both CO2 emissions and water use in garment and textile manufacturing facilities. Aii and… -
Thursday, 19 September 2024Californian bill leads the charge on EPR
SACRAMENTO - The Sunshine State is poised to introduce a new Responsible Textile Recovery Act to combat unnecessary waste and promote the textile circular economy through new statutory measures. Regulators in California point to figures outlining… -
Friday, 23 August 2024Difficult year for Nike’s sustainability goals
BEAVERTON - Amidst multiple challenges, 2024 hasn’t been favourable for Nike – staff layoffs, a sales downturn and a direct-to-consumer shift leading to a pending securities fraud class action lawsuit. In a parallel vein, the world’s most renowned… -
Thursday, 15 August 2024Better Cotton defends physical traceability system
GENEVA - The Earthsight NGO, which earlier this year raised concerns linking cotton certified by Better Cotton with deforestation in Brazil, recently fired another shot across the initiative's bow. Quoting an unnamed whistleblower, Earthsight… -
Thursday, 08 August 2024Forward thinking - researching future fashion
LONDON - From exploring the use of robotics to support a re-shored UK apparel manufacturing sector to establishing a British textile recycling industry, the Circular Fashion Innovation Network (CFIN) could not be accused of a lack of ambition. Part… -
Wednesday, 07 August 2024Cash wave needed to scale textile solutions
LONDON - The idea behind investing for impact is to deliver positive returns to an investor’s portfolio while at the same time improving society. And while different from funds that go directly to innovators developing new environmental technology,… -
Monday, 29 July 2024Reversible polyester dyeing uses CO2
LEEDS – A new process for dyeing polyester is said to be more sustainable, compatible with existing machinery and even reversible to facilitate textile-to-textile recycling. This process, billed as CO2-mediated switchable solubility dyeing aims to… -
Monday, 22 July 2024Textiles to be hit by deforestation law
BRUSSELS - The EU’s EUDR deforestation regulation is set to greatly impact the global textiles industry by demanding detailed analysis of viscose and lyocell supply chains caught up by the new law – with new calls for it to be delayed. Andrew Vaux… -
Friday, 19 July 2024Cotton and climate - feeling the heat?
In the second of his series of articles on how climate change is set to impact the cotton industry, cotton, and agriculture our correspondent Simon Ferrigno looks at data, legislation and mitigation. We are now as little as five years away from… -
Friday, 14 June 2024Good Fashion Fund shares lessons learned
Billed as a first of its kind impact investment fund, the Good Fashion Fund was launched to provide finance for disruptive technologies in textile and garment factories in Bangladesh and India. Three years on, the partnership of the Laudes… -
Tuesday, 11 June 2024Social dialogue in the global garment industry
As a European-born consultant deeply engaged in labour rights advocacy, I've grappled with the harsh realities of coloniality's impact on workers. Marginalised communities face systemic relegation to the lowest labour hierarchies, perpetuating… -
Monday, 10 June 2024Textile recycling - rip it up and start again
I’m a child of the 1970’s and, whilst I can’t claim to have grown up in poverty, I was brought up to understand the importance of product longevity and the avoidance of waste. Recently I watched my football team, wearing a football shirt that I… -
Tuesday, 04 June 2024Impact per wear - fashion's forgotten metric?
Mass retail and fast fashion, in particular, have introduced a new dynamic over the last few decades, while the industry’s latest game-changers are social shopping and ultra-fast online fashion. Some newcomers from Asia have quickly established… -
Tuesday, 04 June 2024SBTs for Nature - year one progress report
One year ago, the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), the Fashion Pact (TFP) and Conservation International mapped out how the fashion industry could implement its first Science-Based Targets for Nature. Their… -
Friday, 31 May 2024Is cotton coping with climate change?
Cotton and agriculture correspondent Simon Ferrigno examines how the cotton industry is adapting to the impacts of climate change in the first of a new series. Pakistan recently warned of “heavy loss of life” due to glacial melting . In Brazil,… -
Wednesday, 17 April 2024Tackling the textile-to-textile recycling challenge
As a new Textile Exchange report calls for an end to the use of both virgin synthetic textiles and polyester recycled from plastic bottles by the end of the decade, we spoke to three textile-to-textile recycling pioneers about their ambitions. All… -
Thursday, 11 April 2024Textile innovation - when good ideas go bad...
Phil Patterson argues that textile industry eco-innovators selling ineffective, badly marketed, or over-priced technology to shopkeepers is a badly flawed business model that works for no-one. It’s incredibly pleasing there’s so much work being done… -
Tuesday, 09 April 2024Heads above the parapet in Myanmar
Journalists working for the Myanmar Labour News (MLN) website - which reports on conditions from inside the country's factories - recently revealed that reports of worker abuses had almost tripled in a year. In its annual report, MLN said it had… -
Monday, 08 April 2024Cellulosic fibre suppliers take stock
Lenzing has paused production of its lyocell-based Tencel Refibra fibres from cotton waste due to a shortage of high-quality recycled pulp. This is a good example of how the infrastructure for the collection, sorting, and re-processing of… -
Friday, 05 April 2024Due diligence - reversing the race to the bottom
Alexander Kohnstamm, executive director of Fair Wear, on why the textile sector urgently needs mandatory, OECD-based due diligence. The long-negotiated EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) was put in jeopardy at the very last… -
Thursday, 04 April 2024Impact per wear - forgotten fashion metric?
The relevance of impact per wear is increasing as faster fashion accelerates and more clothing is discarded earlier. Investor analyst Rogier van Mazijk takes a look at how and why this useful metric is often overlooked. The significant changes that… -
Wednesday, 03 April 2024What's really going on in Chile's Atacama Desert?
Our correspondent Lavinia Muth visited Chile to report on the world’s biggest mountain of fashion waste but came away with a different perspective – and a very personal story. Reports of an ever-growing mountain of textile waste in Chile's Atacama… -
Tuesday, 02 April 2024EU fabric suppliers: cautiously optimistic
MUNICH – While fabric suppliers at the Performance Days event in Munich remained cautious about sustainable innovation in the current uncertain economic climate, many remain optimistic that regulation around waste and the circular economy will still… -
Thursday, 28 March 2024Bharat Tex - India's largest global textile event
Bringing together 3,500 exhibitors from across the entire value chain under one roof for the first time, the theme of Bharat Tex 2024 emphasised India’s capability to provide end-to-end textile solutions. Spread across nearly two million square feet… -
Thursday, 28 March 2024Tracking sustainability through the supply chain
Despite ongoing political wrangling, the European Union’s (EU) Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) looks like it will finally make it into the statute book - albeit with significant concessions. But what’s this new directive… -
Wednesday, 27 March 2024Are textile innovators hitting the wrong target?
Are fashion brands really the best customers for textile innovators, asks Katherine Albertson, a former project manager with a US bio-based materials pioneer. Renewcell’s declaration of bankruptcy was sad, but hardly shocking. That appears to be the… -
Wednesday, 27 March 2024Fashion’s future fragmented fabric landscape
Last week’s Fashion for Good event in The Netherlands became a frontline for contrasting visions and opinions about the future of existing and next-generation materials used in the fashion sector. Will there be a return to natural fibres?… -
Tuesday, 26 March 2024Renewcell - when risk doesn’t equal reward
With the deadline for offers for bankrupt textile-to-textile recycling pioneer Renewcell less than 48 hours away, Ecotextile News editor John Mowbray argues that the Swedish company's collapse was down to a failure by brands, investors and the… -
Monday, 25 March 2024Haute couture capital sets sights on fast fashion
Baptiste Carriere-Pradal, co-founder of the 2BPolicy consultancy, considers the ambitions of Paris to move on from being the capital of fashion to become a beacon for fashion legislation. For nearly two decades, France has been toying with the idea… -
Tuesday, 13 February 2024Spilling the dirt on compostable stretch denim
Italian textile manufacturer Candiani has shared details of an experiment to show off the compostable qualities of what it claims is the world's first biodegradable stretch denim. A visit to his local butcher in Milan gave Alberto Candiani the idea… -
Monday, 12 February 2024California’s climate of disclosure
With California's newly-implemented climate disclosure laws said to be the most wide-ranging introduced so far, we take a look at what they will mean for businesses. There’s no doubt as to the alarming impact of climate change in the US state – with… -
Saturday, 10 February 2024Why decarbonisation depends on data
HONG KONG – With 2024 already here, it’s too late for any one organisation to roll out a strategy that can guarantees the whole textile sector can reduce its carbon emissions by 45% in the next seven years – a figure called for by scientists if the… -
Friday, 09 February 2024Fashion’s fake GHG emission claims
Lutz Walter, secretary general of the European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles, outlines why the claim that the fashion industry is to blame for 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions is wrong – and why this matters. Four years after… -
Thursday, 08 February 2024'Industry first' microplastics test developed
Italian textile manufacturer Aquafil has developed what it claims is the first methodology to precisely measure the quality and quantity of microplastics released in the textile industry. The company says the method, developed in partnership with… -
Wednesday, 07 February 2024New tool counts textile process CO2 emissions
A new tool from the Apparel Impact Institute will be able to help calculate the cumulative CO2 emissions for each process and sub-process from textile manufacturing – an industry first. On the 22nd February, we will broadcast the first of a 3-part… -
Tuesday, 16 January 2024Brands' integrity on energy rated 'shallow'
BERLIN – The integrity of the renewable electricity commitments of fashion giants H&M, Zara owner Inditex, Nike, Gap and Lululemon has been found wanting by a new report from the New Climate Institute. The non-profit assessed brands' renewable… -
Tuesday, 02 January 2024Regenerative cotton – don't believe all the hype
Simon Ferrigno argues that regenerative cotton is about local solutions, designed by and with local people, and sold at a price that they can live on. Not a system where cotton producers are constantly observed by new digital tools and data owners,… -
Thursday, 21 December 2023Expert panel talks ESG in fashion
With environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment currently in the doldrums, a panel of experts explain what this could mean for the fashion and retail sectors after its politicisation in the USA; and after UK investors shy away from this… -
Tuesday, 19 December 2023Blanket PFAS ban poses textiles conundrum
The world of eco-textiles is littered with issues that are not clear cut, where there are pluses and minuses, and where compromise rules as stakeholders seek a ‘least bad outcome’ or a reduced environmental impact. But, a blanket ban on PFAS would… -
Monday, 11 December 2023Back to the future for cotton
David Styles speaks to a firm that works with the European Space Agency, Cotton made in Africa and a geospatial technology specialist to explore why satellite imagery is being used to remotely monitor cotton crops. Is this the next phase of the… -
Thursday, 07 December 2023GFA Monitor - many voices, one mission
DUBAI - Launched at COP28 climate summit, the 2023 GFA Monitor is the second edition of a multi-agency report from the Global Fashion Agenda (GFA) that aims to combine the expertise of leading industry bodies across the fashion and textiles… -
Wednesday, 06 December 2023New report links global brands to forced labour
SHEFFIELD - Thirty nine global brands and retailers are at "high risk" of selling goods with exposure to Uyghur forced labour onto the European market, according to a new study. The report, entitled ‘Tailoring Responsibility: Tracing Apparel Supply… -
Tuesday, 05 December 2023Woolly thinking?
OPINION - The Woolmark Company's ongoing campaign against synthetic textiles appears to be full of contradictions A recent LinkedIn post by Livia Firth, the co-founder and creative director of the Eco-Age PR and lobbying agency, on a new campaign… -
Monday, 04 December 2023Are influencers authentic on sustainable fashion?
Influencing by definition is not new, but never before has it been so easy for an average “nobody” to join a social media platform, garner a following and turn themselves into a self-made ‘sustainable fashion influencer’. Tom Bithell explores.
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