Cracking the Code of Making Old Clothes New Again
Discarded clothing is an environmental scourge. But across Europe, companies are joining forces to build new technologies that could make recycling scalable.
Discarded clothing has become a global environmental problem, but in Europe and elsewhere, new methods of recycling may present a solution. Above, post-consumer textile bales ready for recycling at Brightfiber in Amsterdam.
Photographer: Martina Nováková/Brightfiber
At the height of the holiday season on Amsterdam’s Kalverstraat last December, thousands of shoppers who regularly descend on the popular shopping district came face to face with the grim reality behind humanity’s sartorial excess.
A local activist group had deposited an enormous pile of clothes on the sidewalk, in sight of stores such as Adidas, Zara and the popular Dutch casual fashion chain Cotton Club. Some seven feet-tall and 25-feet around, the garment dump drew puzzled looks from passersby, some of whom stopped to read handwritten signs poking out the top. “Every 10 minutes we throw away this much clothing in the Netherlands,” read one.