Chethma De Mel, Jadetimes Staff
C. J. De Mel is a Jadetimes news reporter covering Entertainment News
The true cost of your clothes goes way beyond the price tag, as fashion is responsible for a staggering slice of carbon emissions and waste around the world. But this week, businesses and organizations across the East of England are showing it can be greener - from recyclable school uniforms to non-toxic dyes and repair services.
One of those leading the way in green fashion is Colorifix, based in Norwich. Co-founded by scientists from Cambridge, including Orr Yarkoni, James Ajioka, and David Nugent, Colorifix leverages a special bioengineering process to create fabric dyes without using harmful chemicals. It would first detect colors in nature and then program microbes to make those pigments, which would later go onto textiles. That drastically reduces water and energy consumption, as well as pollution, compared to traditional dyeing. That was also the spark that ignited Yarkoni's experience in making the company innovative, after seeing toxic waste in the rivers of Kathmandu.
Colorifix now provides colored fabric to mills all over the world and is targeting to match the price of conventional dyes as they scale production. Yarkoni underlines the need to balance environmental sustainability with job and livelihood preservation in exiting factories.
Another important development in sustainable fashion is Project Re:claim that converts old school uniforms into new garments. For this reason, Project Re:claim, in cooperation with the Salvation Army's Kettering polyester recycling plant, has produced a fully recyclable blazer. This re-designed David Luke blazer can be reprocessed without removing anything from it and thus supports a far quicker form of recycling. Now, this blazer is exhibited in the London Design Museum along with the "Tomorrow's Wardrobe" exhibition.
Andy Smith, who runs Shoesmiths in St Albans, is trying to redress the problem of shoe waste. When more than two million pairs of shoes are going to landfill every week, Smith can turn his hand to everything from stilettos to trainers. He says shoe repair, when it comes to good leather shoes at least, is both cost-effective and more eco-friendly, with younger people more prepared to get their shoes repaired as part of an eco-lifestyle.
On the one hand, such initiatives show that businesses and charities believe in fashion as sustainable, and not just a fad, but one of the leading ways to decrease the environmental footprint of the whole apparel industry.
