Fashion Waste: Challenges and Solutions

One of the possibilities to reduce the environmental impact of a product is to reduce the waste.

There are different reasons why waste can vary, depending on the design of the product, the materials used, the production process, and the business model of the brand.

You can look at waste in fashion in two ways:

1. Waste of finished products
2. Waste in the production process

Let’s examine each in more detail.

Waste of Finished Product

Estimates suggest that 20% to 30% of garments produced don’t get sold.

In France, before the government decided to prohibit product destruction, it was estimated that about 10 tons of new clothes were thrown away each year.

Fast fashion is, of course, one of the main causes of this waste, but it is not the only one. Their business model, based on overproduction, consists of producing bulk before any customer has seen the collection, relying heavily on forecasted sales primarily through their own direct distribution. This means that if forecasts are inaccurate, or unexpected events like COVID-19 occur, or if deliveries are delayed for any geo-political reasons, they will have to discard many clothes, creating a double impact on the environment: the impact from producing them and the impact from disposing of them.

Fortunately, regulations are slowly coming into place to help prevent this from happening, but controlling it is not easy.

On a more positive note, here are a few tips to reduce this waste:

1. Make to Order: Especially for seasonal items, consider taking orders from samples before starting production.
2. Test the Market: If you still want to maintain some stock, gauge customer interest before beginning production and make a proper marketing campaign.
3. Create Seasonless Products: This allows you to maintain stock (be careful with this) to meet your minimum order quantities (MOQ) or achieve more competitive costs. If you can’t sell them now, you can keep them for next season.
4. Limited Editions: If you can’t get pre-orders, start with a limited production run. This makes the product more exclusive while reducing potential waste.

Waste in the Production Process

We estimate that during production, depending on various factors mentioned above, the average material waste is 10% to 30% for garments, 20% to 35% for shoes, and 15% to 35% for bags.

This may vary depending on design, type of material used, production technology, knowledge, etc...

Here are some tips to reduce production waste as much as possible:

1. Consider Waste While Designing: Think about how the product's pattern will be assembled and avoid complex constructions that create large areas of material waste.
2. Use Core Materials: Create a list of your core materials—the basics that you will always use. Select high-quality materials so you can reuse leftovers repeatedly in future seasons.
3. Use Technology: Employ technologies like CAD (Computer-Aided Design) or automatic cutting machinery to optimize material yield and minimize waste. This is more complex with leather due to its natural characteristics but easier with uniform materials.
4. Collaborate with Manufacturers: Work with manufacturers to develop "zero waste" patterns that closely resemble your designs. While achieving zero waste is nearly impossible due to grading for different sizes, you can get close.
5. Utilize Efficient Machinery: Ask your factory to implement new machinery that allows for nearly 100% usage of chemicals and adhesives, such as vacuum system adhesive containers.
6. Integrate Complementary Products: Add to your collection small products and accessories that allow you to repurpose material waste from previous productions.
7. Use Regenerative Materials: Some leathers, for example, are tanned in a way that allows them to become organic fertilizer like Ecotan (see previous article: Sustainable leather: Exploring Types, Production, and Traceability for Eco-Friendly Fashion Choice). Companies like Manteco and Beste have programs in place to create new materials from factory waste.

If you are still a small brand are you can't find a factory that is willing to produce small quantities, lately there are more and more platforms that can help you with that, proposing a database of factories with specific characteristics where you could potentially find your match.

Some of them are:

• Made in Italy product: https://italianartisan.com
• Footwear: https://www.findsourcing.com
• Bags: https://wonnda.com/product-types/bags-private-label/

Conclusion

We often overlook waste as an important factor, but there are many opportunities to reduce it. This doesn’t just minimize environmental impact; it also reduces material costs through more efficient production.

Most of the sustainable practices are coming from production efficiency improvement.

That's to prove that in the end it is about business and there is no business if there is no profit...and there is no business if there is no planet.

It's now really the time when we should think about both at the same level.