Sustainability is still a relatively new concept in the fashion world, which means there’s a lot of opportunity for innovation. One area that’s especially ripe for disruption is textile waste. Every year, we see 16 million tons of textile waste in the United States alone, contributing to the growing burden on our landfills and the misuse of various natural resources.
While there’s still a long road ahead in solving this problem, there are a few ways that fashion brands can start to move the needle. Here are five creative ideas to reduce textile waste, with examples from well-known fashion brands that are leading the way in terms of sustainability.
1. Partner with local organizations. There are a growing number of organizations — from chemical recyclers to environmentally-friendly textile cleaners—that partner with fashion brands of all sizes to reduce the amount of waste that’s produced. If you’re a fashion brand, consider working with an organization that’s local to where you’re headquartered
URBN — the Philadelphia-based parent company of brands like Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters, Free People and Nuuly — is a great example of this. According to Sarah Reice, Sustainability Manager at Anthropologie, URBN has partnered with a local textile recycling organization called FABSCRAP since 2019 to recycle fabric waste from their knitting, sample and pattern-making rooms.
But the team goes far beyond just the typical partnership, finding other creative ways to reduce textile waste with the help of their recycling partner. “We’ve also partnered with FABSCRAP to host a reuse and repair workshop for all of our brands,” says Reice. “Having workshops like these, where you can teach people a new skill, is great for reducing waste and also for employee engagement.”
2. Donate your excess fabric. If you have textile waste that can’t be recycled or resold, consider donating your scraps to organizations that might be able to put them to good use. These can be schools or nonprofits — anywhere that might want to use extra fabric for projects, such as making a patchwork quilt or hosting an upcycling class.
Vuori Sustainability Manager, Mara Ley, personally enjoys donating excess materials to local design schools. “Most fashion brands probably have a lot of waste in terms of headers. I love working with local design schools to make sure they’re getting headers or excess trim boxes if they want to use them.”
3. Host sample sales. Sample sales are also a great way to reduce textile waste. These are heavily discounted sales that can be targeted at your existing customers or even internally with your own employees. It’s essentially a way for fashion brands to get rid of any excess of leftover products, without creating more landfill waste.
Sample sales also present a great opportunity to give back to your community. You can either donate all proceeds to a local nonprofit. Or anything that doesn’t sell can go to charities that could put the extra products to good use. If you don’t have pre-existing relationships with nonprofits, you can work with an organization like Good360 to figure out where and how to best distribute your items.
4. Consider a resale platform. According to the Future of Fashion Resale Report by Business of Fashion, only 5% to 7% of all clothing items that can be resold, actually get resold. This means there’s a huge opportunity for fashion brands to own their resale markets and, in the process, significantly drive down textile waste.
Treet is the fastest and the most flexible resale solution for brands, allowing each to customize its experience that best suits its business needs. Many fashion brands use our platform to get their resale efforts off the ground — whether that’s by using Treet to sell their unsold and returned inventory in bulk or to create branded trade-in portal where their customers send in items to be resold during flash sales once per quarter.
5. Think outside the box. You don’t have to be limited by what others have done. Whether you run a small, one-person fashion brand or are in charge of sustainability at a well-established company, there are tons of opportunities to get creative with your waste reduction efforts. From hosting a ‘hackathon’ that challenges people to use leftover fabrics to create something brand new to finding innovative ways to cut garments in a way that reduces waste, the possibilities are endless.
Finding ways to reduce textile waste continues to be a significant challenge faced by fashion brands around the world. But with so many sustainability leaders coming together to think up solutions, we’re optimistic that we’ll start seeing incremental changes to the way that clothes are produced, recycled, and reused. If you’re interested in investing in Treet’s resale solution as a way to reduce textile waste at your company, you can set up a time to chat with us here!