Let’s start with a staggering fact. Fashion is responsible for almost one third of industrial water pollution: 1 kg of fabric requires about 1 kg of chemicals and 150 litres of water.
In our opinion, the real enemy is not fashion in its purest sense of wanting to grace a person’s eyes and body. It is the exaggeration of wanting to monetise an ever-growing industry as much as possible. Why do we have to create clothes from oil or destroy plantations of local products for intensive cultivation necessary for our desire to feel beautiful?
Do we really dress up just for the sake of feeling beautiful and unattainable?
We admit that nowadays we have all the means, but there is a lack of willingness to get informed on these issues.
We already have so many problems, that is true.
That’s why we tend to be less informed about certain issues. On the other hand, at the dinner table with friends, we are more likely to talk about war or politics than about the need to save a planet that our ancestors preserved for two thousand years and we are literally destroying in less than a hundred years.
All this to say that our choice to use natural fabrics is dictated by the need to reduce to zero the use of any toxic and harmful chemical compounds for our Planet and therefore for us.
Recycled polyester, although indeed a great way to reuse the immense amount of plastic we throw away every day, still has many limitations.
It is not true that all the plastic we throw away is recycled. Let’s dispel this myth. It was a blow even for me who thought I was very sensitive and attentive to the subject.
In fact, I didn’t understand it at all.
“Only 9% of plastic waste is recycled, while 19% is sent to incinerators and about 50% to controlled landfills. The remaining 22% is dumped in wild landfills, burnt in the open or thrown into the environment.”
OECD Global Plastics Outlook
So from plastics the recycling is still very low, not to mention that in the meantime we are producing more and more plastic.
From clothing the story is almost similar.
Not all polyester garments can be recycled. In fact, the fiber can only be recycled if it is pure and not if it is mixed with other fibers. Added to this, only 1% of garments are currently recycled. We, when we first started our research, were totally taken aback. Added to this, unfortunately, is the fact that the consistency of the (chemical) dyes is not constant, so it is often necessary to repeat the dyeing processes several times, with a considerable consumption of chemicals, water and energy.
And that’s not the end of it, (it almost sounds like a joke) about 700,000 microplastics are released with each wash, which then ends up in our waters and oceans.
If nothing else, the positive news is that they are developing filters for our washing machines that can capture some of these microplastics.
Having said that, we have therefore decided to approach the global issue of sustainability in a different way.
By dedicating ourselves to nature, and all the good it has to offer, and which in return only asks to be respected.
In the next article we will tell you about our protagonist, the nettle!
#wearyourmotherearth
