research, for more knowledge on the impact of recycling?

To help develop my knowledge about the impact of recycling, I researched some people that deal with this impact upon society:
Jill Danyelle works on creative projects dealing with the ecology of our lives. One of her projects, fiftyRX3, was a website about style and sustainability. It consisted of a photo documentary of what she wore everyday for a year with a goal of averaging fifty percent sustainability based on the environmental mantra 'reuse, reduce, recycle'.

What do you think are the most important issue when considering ethical fashion?

“There are many issues when it comes to ethical fashion - labor, materials, energy usage and waste in production, durability and necessity. Fashion in general is not very sustainable. Clothing, yes, style, probably, but the rapidly changing trends of fashion have a certain built-in obsolescence. Is a shirt made from organic cotton that will be out of style in a year or two any more sustainable than a non-organic one made to stand the test of time? I think it is difficult to be perfect, but you can at least be educated on the issues and try to make more thoughtful, informed choices”.

Patagonia Urges Customers To Buy Less, Repair And Reuse More

Patagonia, a world-leader in sustainable outdoor gear and clothing, has introduced at New York Fashion Week a “Common Threads Initiative”, aiming to reduce unwanted and unnecessary consumption of resources and pollution.
“Patagonia on its end agrees to build useful things that last, to repair what breaks and recycle what comes to the end of its useful life. Consumers, fulfilling their part of the pledge agree to buy only what they need (that will last), repair what breaks, reuse (share) what they no longer need and recycle everything else.”
Patagonia is also taking a pledge to reduce, repair, reuse, recycle and reimagine their products. They’re doing the last thing you’d ever expect a company to do – actually asking customers to buy less of their product as a way to eliminate waste. They are even encouraging gear repairs rather than replacements, and providing the necessary resources and materials to help consumers use less.

Kate Fletcher: Waste is an important issue and acting to reduce it has an easy-won popularity that stretches far beyond the boundaries of the fashion and texture industry. The textile sector itself has a long history of working with waste. The most common approach to taking waste is to implement waste management strategies known as reduce, reuse, recycle.
Kate Fletcher: Thriving businesses and non-profit organizations have textile waste at the core of their operations. `the rag trade` has  along history of textile waste recycling and as Strasser (1999) notes, waste is created by sorting and classifying through re-sorting and reclassifying, this waste can create opportunities for organizations to benefit and profit from. For clothing this may be the ideal form of recycling as not only is the clothing recycled in a materials sense but its purpose-to be worn-is also retained.

For the past 40 years, an increasing public awareness toward environmental issues has brought attention to the fashion industry- an industry that is fundamentally in opposition to the concept of environmentalism. As Brosdahl (2007) questions, clothing can be made sustainable, but fashion? In recent years, the fashion cycle has become shorter and shorter as fast fashion retailers such as zara, H&M, Primark and forever 21 sell clothing that is expected to be disposed of after being worn only a few times. As both industry and consumers continue to embrace the fast-fashion concept, the volume of goods to be disposed of or recycled has increased sustainability. As disposable income in countries such as China and India continues to increase, the supply chain of cheap textiles into the waste stream, including the critical problem of necessary disposal, will continue to escalate.
Shaping sustainable fashion
Materials are routinely selected for aesthetic and functional reasons but a fashion designer can choose to work with recovered materials, which positively contribute to the management of textile waste. As sustainable strategy for design, up cycling provides a designer with the opportunity o reassess the real worth and value of a waste material through the design and manufacturing of new products. Rather than recycling, which involves downgrading of material, informed designers are engaging in strategies such as upclcycling. The re-use and re-purpose of existing materials allow a designer to divert textile matter away from incineration or landfill. Much of the reclaimed or recycled fabrics used will come from pre-consumer and post-consumer waste.
Fashion clothing contributes to millions of tones of landfill waste each year globally, which is a frightening reflection of the wastefulness created by the fashion system. The vast majority of fast fashion garments are made from polyester and may of these are typically disposed of in landfill sites. No single solution will resolve the vast qualities of waste associated with the fashion industry, but wonderland paves the way towards some of those solutions.

 

Why is ethical fashion important?

Ethics are important in any industry. We live within a system of finite resources and are connected in some way to everything and everyone in our world. So, while global warming has rightly been the focus of a lot of recent environmental campaigns, consumerism, toxicity and fair trade are still important relevant issues. Cotton, a cornerstone of the fashion and agricultural industries, uses approximately 25% of the world's pesticides at a detriment to the water, land and crop laborers. To me, ethics is part of ecology and evolution, part of learning, growing and surviving individually and as a race.

Do you think it is ever OK to buy clothes from high street stores?

I don't believe in giving mandates or preaching to people. Being informed and thoughtful in your choices is ideal, but there often is no one right choice for everybody as sustainability is a complex issue. Additionally, it can be expensive to buy organic clothing, as a large portion of the eco-market is made up of independent designers who are typically in higher price points. Luckily, some of the high street stores are doing ethical/eco pieces. Given the volume they produce, a small eco-embrace from a large company can have an impact.
Hopefully, as the organic cotton industry grows the prices will continue to come down. However, buying new organic pieces is not the only way to dress sustainably. Personally, I tend to avoid high street stores, but if I were to purchase something, I would try to find a piece I could wear a lot and that wouldn't go out of style too quickly.

Who do you admire in the world of ethical fashion?

I admire all of the independent designers who choose to run their businesses sustainably. It is hard enough to be an independent designer, so to add the extra considerations for sustainability, especially a few years ago before the textile industry started to catch up, takes real conviction. Obviously, people like Katharine Hamnett, Linda Loudermilk and Stewart+Brown were pioneers.
Additionally, companies like Patagonia and Nike made important early decisions to support the organic cotton market. My friend John Patrick has invested in working with the cotton suppliers for his label Organic, which received a Vogue/CFDA Fashion Fund nomination this year. With this recognition, hopefully, more people in the industry will see that it is possible to have both ethics and aesthetics.
Finally, I also admire people who have examined and questioned the role fashion has in our lives. People like Andrea Zittel, Grey Sweatsuit Revolution, Kate Fletcher, Little Brown Dress and Swap-o-rama-rama are all on my links page.

There seem so many issues around ethical fashion, what can I do to make a difference?

I like design and new looks as much as the next person, but, again, I try to be thoughtful with my purchases and resourceful with what I already have. I often try to:

·                pull out things I haven't worn in awhile

·                reinvent a piece or wear it in a different way

·                think about what I could use and buy items I hope to wear a lot and/or keep a long time

·                focus more on quality over quantity

·                buy clothing made from sustainable materials

·                buy vintage and second hand.