Circular Economy in Clothing

[Environmental conscious life begins with food, clothing, housing, transportation, and entertainment]: How to create a circular economy in clothing

Environment-friendly slippers made from plastic waste: SUBS

The founders are two brothers from New Zealand, Justin and Andrew. They use recycled plastic to make environmentally-friendly slippers in an attempt to reverse the situation of marine plastic pollution. The Subs slippers were made from recycled plastic treated by Taiwan’s environmental protection treatment plant. Justin explained, “Each pair of Subs flip-flops is made of 500 kg of waste plastic. They are made in Taiwan (MIT). Even the packaging cartons and tags are made of recycled paper, we never use plastic products.” Is it possible to recycle worn slippers? The flip-flops are made of recycled plastic bottles, that is, ordinary PVC. However, after treatment, it becomes an environmentally-friendly PCU. Justin said, “PVC is highly toxic. If it is thrown into the landfill without treatment, it will cause great damage to the land.” Environmentally-friendly PCU is non-toxic and easy to be re decomposed. Justin and Andrew accept consumers to send broken and worn Subs slippers back to the company to recycle into new slippers.

Subs regenerates plastic waste from the beach, turning plastic garbage from the beach into flip-flops that can be used on the beach.

The New Zealand brothers living in Taiwan use plastic waste from all over the world to create comfortable and environment-friendly slippers.

Simple and comfortable sugarcane shoe soles with negative emission: Allbirds

Zwillinger and Brown officially established Allbirds in 2016, and they began to look for “simple” shoes. Generally, the soles are made of ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) plastic. Brown and the Brazilian plastic manufacturer collaborated to develop a shoe sole made from sugarcane—SweetFoam. The sugarcane of SweetFoam is from Brazil and relies on natural rainwater without any artificial irrigation, so it will not have any impact on the environment. It is the only sole in the world with “negative emissions” (not only do the soles increase no carbon dioxide, but also absorb it in the process of material growth and production). In addition, the wool they use also allows Allbirds to save 60% of the energy in the production process compared to the use of synthetic materials. The fiber used also comes from sugarcane that relies on natural rainwater, and the production process emits 50% less carbon dioxide than other brands!

Use wool to make shoes and sugarcane to make shoe soles.

Use fiber of sugarcane and trees to make the most comfortable shoes in the world.

Promote environmental protection through green clothing at an affordable price: WILDGREEN living clothing

The cotton for ordinary cotton clothing only accounts for 3% of the global agricultural products, but the pesticides and chemical agents used are 1/4 of the global total, and each kilogram of clothing will cause up to 200 kg of waste water pollution. Based on this, the founders started establishing a brand, using organic cotton as clothing material and selling organic cotton products such as T-shirts, towels, handkerchiefs, scarves, baby sheets, etc. Moreover, the products are 100% green product oriented, and the products (including packaging materials) must be green and environment-friendly materials.

The whole series of goods are made from recycled cloths and clothing are remanufactured.

The waste coffee grounds become new materials and are added to the yarn.

Creating handicrafts by weaving old clothing: Eco Tano Workshop

In order to arouse people’s sense of cherishing things, the founder Shu-Yu Hsu set up the “Eco Tano Workshop” in Ximending and set up a manual course of “Old Clothing Creation and Free Weaving,” encouraging students to bring unused old clothing to the studio to create a new look. The old clothing knitting course of the studio is quite flexible. In the first lesson, students will be taught crochet knitting skills. In the second lesson, they will learn to transform their old clothing into things they need. According to the needs of each student, the studio makes different changes to the materials of old clothing. Shu-Yu Hsu said, “If there is no other demand, even if you transform old clothing into water bottle bags or environmental bags, you still can’t use them. If you take them home and leave them there, such a transformation is meaningless.” The transformation of old clothing is of an infinite possibility. For example, the harem pants can be transformed into skirts, and the mesh tops that are difficult to wear can be transformed into mesh bags that are easy to use. In addition to prolonging the service life of the cloths, people can continue their memories by knitting old clothing.

Give new life to old clothing.

Use the surplus clothing to weave a mesh bag.

Realize the green life in “clothing” from now on

After knowing the above brands that want to contribute to a sustainable earth, we know that clothing can do so much for the earth. How else can we practice in real life?

1.Choose detergent that bears an environmental protection logo.

2.Reduce dry cleaning.

3.Replace dryer with natural sunlight: Allow clothing to dry in the sun and reduce the use of the machine!

4.Buy clothing you need, and reduce the purchase of unnecessary fast-fashion goods: reduce the purchase of a piece of clothing you do not need will reduce the chance that it will be thrown into the old clothing recycling bin and burned, or recycled to specific organizations to make other goods.
The small details of life are all a small step towards green life. The small steps forward by everyone will be a big step towards sustainability!