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Chemical Circularity in Fashion

The fashion industry has to change its relationship with chemicals as a matter of urgency.

The way in which chemicals are currently used and disposed of makes textiles the second most polluting industry in the world. Furthermore, the extraction, production, transportation, and remediation of those chemicals are a significant contributor to climate change.
As world fibre consumption passes 100 million tonnes per annum, the time has come to take a step back and challenge whether current, single-use models for chemicals used in the conversion of fibres to finished textile products should be allowed to continue.
Chemicals are used in yarn spinning, weaving, knitting and wet processing (e.g. dyeing, printing, finishing, laundry) and are typically used once only. After use in a particular process, they are either passed to the next actor in a supply chain on a product, removed and dumped into the environment, or partially remediated and dumped into the environment.
This can be described as a single-use linear model because there is usually no attempt to recycle or reuse the chemical prior to disposal.
This report is aimed at providing chemical suppliers and chemical users in the supply chain with recommendations and suggestions on how to move away from single-use linear models and increase the recycling and reuse of textile chemicals – referred to in the report as non-linear use models. The recommendations and suggestions for change include a call for the wider use of existing good practice and the need for research and development. The intention is to highlight what is possible, what should be possible and what could be possible. This therefore raises many questions that will need to be addressed from both a technical and behavioural perspective.

Herausgeber*in/Autor*in: Colour Connections; Autor*in: Phil Patterson

Medienart: Hintergrundinformation

Erscheinungsjahr: 2020

Zielgruppe: Student*innen, Erwachsene

Sprache: Englisch

Umfang: 56 Seiten
Bezug: kostenfrei zum Download

Suchbegriffe: Ausrüstung, Chemikalien, Circular Economy, Fasern, Färben, Kreislaufwirtschaft, Lederproduktion, Lieferketten, Nachhaltigkeit, Textilindustrie, Umweltaspekte