 |
CONSUMERS TRENDS/ECO & ETHICAL BRANDS
source:
http://new.unep.org/
PDF/sc/Textiles_
resourcekit-8.pdf
|
|
For several years now, developed and developing countries have forged partnerships around fair trade in textiles…
 high-street names have also entered the age of sustainable development. Some use organic cotton or hemp; others process fibres without heavy metals or ensure acceptable working conditions. Notable examples include Agnès B, Katherine Hamnett, Armani Jeans, Timberland and H&M;
after a short-lived fashion for 'green textiles' in the early 1990s, there is now a more sustained demand for clothing products that can demonstrate compliance with high health, environmental and social standards. One indicator of this is the expansion in the use of the Eco-Tex 100 certificate from none in 1992 to over 3000 now, with an annual rate of growth of 20-30% a year;
the amount of organic cotton produced worldwide each year, 24 million pounds, is less than 1% of conventionally grown cotton. Still, the number of brands using organic cotton is accelerating - to more than 250 in the United States today from fewer than 100 in 2002, according to the Organic Exchange, an industry-sponsored organization in Berkeley, Calif., that acts as a clearinghouse for suppliers and manufacturers of organic cotton;
some companies have developed new eco-friendly textiles from algae, soya, milk casein, bamboo, etc. Ingeo, a natural synthetic fibre made by distilling plant sugar from plant starches such as corn, has made its high-fashion debut thanks to the Italian jean designer Diesel, and soon Versace Sport;
other firms make clothes from natural or recycled materials. In China, Bambro Textiles works with bamboo fibre, spun from bamboo grown in Yunnan province, to propose a range of household linens in this 100% natural and biodegradable material. Patagonia has been manufacturing fleece sweaters from recycled plastic bottles for several years.
|
