TEXTILES.ORG
Global fashion retailing giant Inditex has signed an agreement with Lenzing, the Austrian producer of the plant-based sustainable textile fiber Lyocell TENCEL, for the manufacture of premium textile raw materials from textile waste generated by Inditex.
Throughout the project, Inditex will provide Lenzing with fabric for recycling into new materials. The pilot will start with a contribution of around 500 tons of textile waste, with the aim of increasing this to around 3,000 tons within a few years. This is enough fabric to enable Lenzing to produce around 48 million garments.
Inditex is also supporting research into technology for the creation of new textile fibers from recycled garments in association with MIT and specific Spanish universities.
Zara, an Inditex brand, has announced that it will offer shoppers free at-home collection of used clothing when delivering online orders. The pilot project, which is being conducted in collaboration with the Spanish charity Cáritas and transportation firm Seur, will start in Madrid, Spain, in September and will eventually roll out all over Spain.
In addition, Inditex and Cáritas will install between 1,500 and 2,000 garment collection containers in the country’s main cities. “The charity will sort the clothing to further the garment’s life through its distribution channels or allow for recycling for the development of new textile raw materials,” a company statement said.
Inditex will donate 3.5 million euros ($3.9 million) over two years to modernize Cáritas’ garment sorting and treatment plants, and the company will put garment collection containers throughout its store network, with the goal of having one in each of its brick-and-mortar stores in Spain by September.