When Jay Guzman spotted an Everlane puffer jacket made with material from recycled plastic bottles, he was drawn to the jacket’s style—and the environmental mission behind it.
“I’ve been more conscious in my purchases,” said the 32-year-old elementary-school teacher from the Bronx, N.Y.
Everlane is among fashion brands ranging from H&M to Hermès trying to use less plastic or eliminate it altogether. They are overhauling manufacturing and shipping amid concerns, particularly among young consumers, about the industry’s toll on the environment. The challenge is finding an eco-friendly replacement for a mainstay of the industry without pushing up costs.
The textile industry has generated about 380 million metric tons of plastic—more than other individual sectors such as electronics or consumer and industrial products or building and construction, according to a 2017 study in the journal Science Advances. Plastic accounts for 63% of the materials used to make clothes, according to a 2017 report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and 73% of those materials end up being incinerated or put in a landfill each year.
Plastic goes into polyester, which is used to make leggings, athletic wear and other garments. It is in polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, which gives clothes and accessories a glossy finish. And it goes into hangers, shopping bags, bubble wrap and other packaging material. Clothes made with plastic can take decades to decompose and the tiny fibers, or microplastics, they shed during laundering can end up polluting water streams.
Some brands are taking steps toward sustainability by using plastic from recycled water bottles instead of so-called virgin plastic, which hasn’t been used. Burberry, which plans to eliminate plastic packaging by 2025, recently calculated it uses 200 metric tons of plastic for packaging, said Pam Batty, vice president of corporate responsibility. By year’s end, the label plans to switch from virgin plastic to eco-friendly materials for garment bags and hangers, she said. In the past few months, Burberry introduced recyclable shopping bags and packaging made in part from fiber from recycled coffee cups.
Stella McCartney has phased out PVC from products and introduced an alternative material in some accessories in the Spring 2019 collection now in stores. The brand has been using polyester made of recycled plastic water bottles rather than virgin polyester throughout its collections when possible. Gucci no longer uses PVC in its products and is switching from virgin plastic to alternatives.
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“In a short amount of time, it will seem old-fashioned and outdated to be using plastic,” said Julie Gilhart, a fashion consultant with an emphasis on environmental matters and a former fashion director at Barneys New York.
Plastic is a hard habit to break. Polyester ranks first among fibers used in apparel, at around 60%, followed by cotton, said Timo Rissanen, assistant professor of fashion design and sustainability at the New School’s Parsons School of Design in New York. It often is less expensive to buy and produce than cotton and other fibers.
Retailers generally want clothing manufacturers to ship garments with plastic hangers, hang tags and security tags, so they are “floor ready,” said Robert Vassalotti, a professor in the fashion business management department of the Fashion Institute of Technology. He estimates that close to 40 billion hangers are used every year and most end up in landfills. “The waste is becoming exponentially worse because of online shopping,” he added, which uses plastic in bubble wrap and other forms of packaging.
A year ago, designer Gabriela Hearst pledged to make her packaging plastic-free by April 2019. She shifted to cardboard hangers and garment bags made of plant-based, compostable materials that she developed with an Israeli-company. Customers who order from Ms. Hearst’s latest collection through her website will receive merchandise in the new packaging. Ralph Lauren recently added a shipping option that will minimize packaging for orders through the label’s website. Items will ship without hangers, garment bags and plastic or paper inserts.
Dialing back the plastic can push up costs. Noah is a New York-based brand begun in 2015 by Brendon Babenzien, the former design director at skate-and streetwear-label Supreme. Noah’s swim trunks, which are made in Italy, are made of nylon rather than the polyester or poly-blend common in men’s swimwear. “The problem is, it’s expensive,” Mr. Babenzien said. “Our swim trunks are, like, $140 because of that, plus [import] duties coming into the U.S. [from Italy]. It’s difficult. Some guys come into the store and they’re like, ‘$140 for swim trunks?’,” and end up not buying them. The label ships online orders in paper and not plastic.
It generally costs Everlane 10% to 15% more in raw material to make the ReNew collection, which uses recycled plastic bottles and was launched in October, said Kimberly Smith, the company’s general manager of product. The collection is part of Everlane’s goal to eliminate virgin plastic from its products, warehouses, stores and headquarters by 2021. Though it costs more to produce ReNew, “we are trying not to have any increase in pricing,” Ms. Smith said. “So far we haven’t had to do that.” A ReNew woman’s anorak costs $88, the same as the company’s 100% polyester City Anorak. Everlane just rolled out a line of sneakers with a sole that is a blend of natural rubber and recycled rubber and 94.2% virgin-plastic free.
Nearly one in three people aged 14 to 34 in the U.S. say it’s important that the clothes they buy are made with sustainable materials, according to Cassandra, a research firm specializing in young consumers.
Mr. Guzman, the teacher who admired Everlane’s puffer jacket, said the company’s use of plastic from recycled bottles appealed to him. He began seeking out eco-friendly brands after learning about how waste can harm the environment and reading that “a whale had pounds of plastic in it.” Sustainability is “a very dope idea,” he said. “I definitely have to support this.”
Write to Ray A. Smith at ray.smith@wsj.com
https://www.wsj.com/articles/fashion-houses-try-to-kick-the-plastic-habit-11556371800
2019-04-27 13:30:00Z
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