Reduce, reuse and recycle
Over the last decade, the concept of fast fashion has revolutionised the fashion industry, where new fashion styles are available every week. The ‘throwaway culture’ has been developed as a result of easy availability of low-priced high street clothing and the success of major brand retailers.
“Landfill and incineration remain the major methods to deal with fashion waste in developing countries,” he said. “This may be attributed to a lack of consumer awareness on issues relating to fashion and textiles, a limited number of organisations dealing with recycling and reusing, a lack of environmental control systems, financial constraints and a lack of governmental legislation.”
“Some of the fashion brands, such as H&M, Zara and Marks & Spencer, have initiated the process of collecting used clothing in exchange for in-store discounts.”
However, Dr Nayak said there’s still a lack of public awareness about consumer waste; solving the fashion and textile waste problem will require collaboration between central government, regional governments, the private sector, society, and other relevant stakeholders.
“Waste regulations and standards should firmly be enforced, enhanced consumer awareness for postconsumer waste should be broadcasted and translated into action, the utilisation of textile waste should be adopted to reduce the waste volume, and a closed-loop recycling system should be created to help combat this,” Dr Nayak said.
Story: Ha Hoang