5 THINGS CONSCIOUS SHOPPERS CONSIDER: PART 5- LESS WASTE

Our last topic is around waste - as an eco-conscious shopper, you consider the tremendous amount of waste in the fashion industry.

Less Waste

The current business model for the global fashion industry is a 'linear' model.  What we mean by this is that there is a defined starting point and ending point, as opposed to a circular model with widespread recycling programs, which would be ideal. The current process requires about 97% new material inputs to produce, and ultimately results in about 85% material waste by the end of a garment's life.  In the current model, the end of a garment's life is in a landfill or being incinerated.  This model generates over 40 million tons of fabric waste, a staggering number.  (Source: Ellen MacArthur Foundation) 

The current process requires about 97% new material inputs to produce, and ultimately results in about 85% material waste

Why does it matter?

Large scale manufacturing of textiles results in around 12% waste on the clothing creation alone (i.e. leftover materials wasted that are destined for landfills). Only 15% of all original materials are recycled by the end of their useful life, and less than 1% of new clothing materials are created from recycled garments. This means that roughly every second, one truckload of discarded clothing is either lanfilled or incinerated.  (Source: Ellen MacArthur Foundation)

Additionally, the packaging, care labels, etc involved in e-Commerce are frequently excessive and generate large scale resource depletion.

Source: Ellen MacArthur Foundation

Some companies are developing upcycled products and other ways to let you re-use fabrics, and there is a global initiative with multiple non profit organizations developing a more 'circular' model for the fashion industry.  Be sure to look for our upcoming blog post about this.

What Paneros is doing about it:

All of our collections are limited edition.  This is because we are only using existing materials to create our products. We also use whatever we can to produce practical accessories out of material that would otherwise go in the trash.  Finally, as much as we are able to, we use recycled and biodegradable materials for all of our packaging and labels while still ensuring a quality experience for our customers.  

We aren’t perfect, but our mission is to minimize the waste across all of our processes as much as we can.

 

If you incorporate these 5 key considerations when shopping, you're well on your way to becoming a conscious shopper. Be sure to share with your friends using the links below!