France will prevent brands and online retailers from destroying unsold or returned consumer products like clothes, electrical items, hygiene products and cosmetics.

The measure would make it compulsory to hand in the products for re-use or recycling. However, products which are not usable after a certain date would have exceptions. Legislation would be enacted to that end. Kering-- the parent company of luxury brands such as Gucci, Saint Laurent and Balenciaga – has been asked to lead a global movement in order to reduce the environmental footprint that the fashion industry produces. British fashion firm Burberry last year burnt unsold clothes, accessories and perfume worth millions of dollars to prevent them being sold off cheaply. The aim was to maintain the exclusivity and luxury mystique of the brand.

Later it became clear that the practice is relatively commonplace in the industry. Many fashion companies burn items that don’t sell after discounts or they bury them in landfills. More than 500 billion dollars is lost globally every year due to clothing underutilisation and the lack of recycling. The overall benefit to the world economy could be about 192 billion dollars in 2030 if the fashion industry were to implement more sustainable measures.

Cotton On has been awarded for its sustainable cotton program in Kenya. The Responsible Retailer Initiative of the Year award honors retailers that demonstrate they are outstanding corporate citizens.

The program was launched in 2014 and aims at improving the livelihood of the Kwale community in Kenya by increasing agricultural productivity in the region and creating a pathway out of poverty. Cotton On aims at improving the livelihood of cotton farmers and helping reduce the impact of cotton farming on environments. Since its inception, the program has been the catalyst for major economic activity, employment and social development in the region, so much so Kenya plans to replicate the model nationally.

The program launched with only 15 farmers and today more than 2,500 farmers are engaged, with 10,000 farmers to be supported by 2020. Kenyan farmers have produced more than 700 tons of lint to be converted into approximately two million T-shirts, with 25 per cent to be sold through Cotton On. Beyond this initiative, the group has an ethical sourcing program, established in 2009, including 14 rules to trade which governs the sourcing, manufacturing and supply of products across its global supply chain. Cotton On is working toward the goal of 100 per cent supply chain traceability.

A Brandix factory in Sri Lanka is the world’s first apparel manufacturing facility to achieve Net Zero Carbon certification. This signifies the factory has completely neutralized its environmental impact through carbon dioxide emissions by being highly energy efficient and using on-site renewable energy resources. The Net Zero Carbon certification is issued by the Leonardo Academy, affiliated with the US Green Building Council, and comes in the background of countries around the world examining ways in which to minimise their contribution towards drastic climate change.

In 2007, Brandix began its journey in environmental sustainability and envisioned becoming the most sustainable apparel manufacturer in Asia. It is the first Sri Lankan company and apparel manufacturer to join in on the World Green Building Council Commitment. Brandix has also achieved the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) platinum rating in Sri Lanka. Brandix’s next target is to ensure that all its factories located in Sri Lanka, under the company’s direct control, will be Net Zero Carbon by 2023. To achieve this ambitious goal, its decarbonisation strategy involves on-site renewable energy generation – with Brandix currently adding nearly 20MW of solar and biomass to its current energy mix-- and resource optimisation strategies with the installation of technologically advanced and energy efficient air compressors, sewing machines, lighting and building fabrics.

Key leaders from Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark have collaborated to accelerate Circular Economy in the Nordic countries at the World Circular Economy Forum in Helsinki.

The coalition aims to establish a new platform to increase knowledge sharing about circular economy business models between the Nordic markets, while exploring the opportunities for specific circular economy projects in the Nordics. The coalition is modelled from the best practices from Holland Circular Hotspot. Stakeholders and actors interested in joining the coalition are encouraged to get in touch.

The coalition will align goals and targets for the circular economy in the Nordics, building on existing efforts from each market and experience from similar companies in different sectors. The coalition will invite governments, cities and regions, companies and knowledge institutions to collaborate closely to explore practical and scalable solutions, applicable for SMEs and core industry, as well as exploring necessary policy incentives.

Initiators of the coalition include Lifestyle and Design Cluster/National Circular Hub from Denmark; Cradlenet and RISE from Sweden; Business Finland from Finland and Circular Norway from Norway. Among other interested parties are Sitra, The Association of the Swedish Recycling Industries and Circular Sweden.

The coalition will help exchange ideas and focus on this important new way of doing business and address global common opportunities.

The apparel industry in the US continues to struggle amid sweeping changes. Many of the troubled retailers are located in malls, where fewer shoppers are spending their money. As sales decline, companies are still weighed down by large, expensive store bases even as retailers need to invest in technology to fend off competition from new brands born online. With consumers moving from one fashion trend to another faster than ever, US retailers are collectively being pushed to get away from the traditional model, which values low costs above all else.

As a group, apparel retailers’ first quarter results are down 24 per cent. The last time the group’s earnings were this bad was the first quarter of 2008, when they fell 40 per cent. Forever 21 is exploring restructuring options to shore up its liquidity. Forever 21 has more than 815 stores in the US and worldwide. The company is in talks with private equity firm Apollo Global Management about raising debtor-in-possession funds to provide financing should it file for bankruptcy.

Teen clothing retailers have found themselves particularly vulnerable to the retail upheaval. A number of them have filed for bankruptcy over the past few years, including Aeropostale and American Apparel.

An international quality certification program, the Social and Labor Convergence Program (SLCP), has been launched in Tirupur. There are many certifications and audits in the market. Each buyer has their own certification, which is really a problem for exporters as they have to spend a lot of money and time on them. SLCP will address alternate measures for all these issues. SLCP will eliminate multiple social audits. It eliminates the need to go to each buyer with various certifications. International buyers will have the information to compare facilities and decide with whom they would like to work with. 

SLCP uses a multi-stakeholder and inclusive organization and approach. Signatories include manufacturers, retailers and brands, agents and audit firms, service providers, as well as organizations in the public sector, standard holders, civil society organizations and multi-stakeholder organizations with an interest in converging assessments and improving labor and social conditions. SLCP will be accountable to signatories through an annual meeting. The International Trade Centre is also a part of SLCP.

This program will help the industry to eliminate audit fatigue, avoid duplication and reduce the number of social and labor audits by replacing current proprietary assessment tools, increase the opportunity for greater comparability of social and labor data and redeploy resources to improvement actions.

There is a lot going on in the field of textile recycling. The main raw material is textile production waste, which is easy for companies to collect. Cotton, wool and all synthetic fibers are thus recycled and at least partly mixed with new materials. Even recycled laminates and zippers are already on the market.

Down can also be recycled. This does not come from waste, but from the collection of old bedding. If it has not previously been possible to break fiber mixtures down into their starting materials in order to recycle them, there are also new solutions from the side. Numerous companies and laboratories around the world are working on the chemical separation of cotton and polyester. Polyester becomes polyester again and cotton cellulose powder, which can be used for cellulose fibers such as viscose. Work is also underway on new plastics that are easier to recycle.

Recycling of old clothes is still a problem because clothing consists of a mix of many materials and is seldom pure. In addition, finishing processes such as dyeing, impregnating and laminating change the fiber properties. Because no one knows exactly which fibers and chemicals are in old clothes, no new fibers can be made from them.

Polyester staple fiber (PSF) prices were range bound in China, India and Pakistan after the Lunar New Year holidays. PSF offers in China were kept firm in the second week of February underpinned by stable polyester chip markets. Market sentiment was largely quiet after the holiday week while PSF producers were slowly restarting their units later in the week. Market supply is expected to increase due to plant restarts and new start-ups. Prices in India and Pakistan were steady during the week.

Polyester filament yarn (PFY) prices rolled over in China amid relatively high inventory during the week. Trading activity was thin and PFY units were resuming operations gradually after the spring festival holiday. However, products will still not be available until the last week of February. Overall, PFY offers are likely to remain range-bound in coming weeks. In India, PFY producers were stable in the week. In Pakistan, PSF offers were largely unchanged.

Polyester spun yarn prices moved up in China and India while they remained flat in Pakistan after the spring festival holidays. However, inventories of yarn producers have been increasing in the low demand market. In India, spun polyester yarn prices jumped that week. In Pakistan, polyester yarn makers kept firm offers underpinned by flat PSF cost.

In 2018, export earnings of Myanmar’s garment sector touched nearly $4.6 billion dollars. And by 2024, total export earnings are expected to reach $20 billion. While the garment sector has seen a five-fold increase in the number of workers their income has increased tenfold. There are 356 garment factories in the country. The garment industry has been on an upward trend. In 2022, export earnings from the garment industry are projected to reach eight to ten billion dollars. The industry is expected to create 1.5 million jobs. Most of workers will be female.

Myanmar exports items from seven major commodity groups. These include: manufactured goods consisting mainly of garments as well as agriculture produce, minerals, cattle, fisheries and forestry products. Myanmar’s major import items are divided into four groups — capital goods, intermediate goods, consumer goods and cut-make-pack garment products. The higher volume of exports reflects the government’s efforts to reduce the trade deficit by screening luxury imports, encouraging import substitutes and boosting exports. They also come at a time when foreign direct investments into the country have eased over the past year. Myanmar’s current account deficit, which includes the trade deficit, is financed mainly by foreign direct investments into the country.

Kingpins will release a list of top 10 most sustainable products found on its show floor. This is because the trade show is often asked by buyers for help find sustainable products. These are products that have truly set themselves apart when it comes to environmental impact. The list for most sustainable products will be completed after each Kingpins Amsterdam show and shared with attendees via a newsletter.

Kingpins prepared one such list and at the top is Advanced Denim’s product, thanks to its impressive resource reduction properties. Artist Fabric Mills guarantees that no virgin cotton is used in the production of its fabric which is made entirely of recycled materials, specifically recycled cotton, polyester and elastane. Orta’s fabric is manufactured from recycled pre-consumer fiber.

Retailers are trying to find more ways to bring sustainable alternatives to the consumer. However, mining sustainable denim fabrics in a sea of blue and sustainable buzzwords is a challenge. Designers and brands are actively searching out sustainable products and trying to determine fact from marketing when making their fabric buys. At the same time, mills and garment makers are making great strides in sustainable production and products and would benefit from increased exposure of their efforts, developments and innovations.