WORLD NEWS 32

BULETIN TEKSTIL.COM /Jakarta

SWEDEN

Increasing temperatures in summer are currently occurring throughout the world, this has led to demands for the apparel industry to contribute to overcoming this problem in their industrial activities. The UN stated that July this year was the hottest month on record.

According to Gherzi Textile, the apparel industry has implemented supply chain practices over the past 40 years to meet the demands of fast fashion. These practices include supply systems, production contracts, goods delivery, storage infrastructure, complex logistics products, and services. Due to the fact that all of this sees the industry’s carbon footprint growing, the role the garment sector plays in reducing global warming must be taken into consideration.

The Apparel Industry Charter for Climate Change Action, which the H&M Group of Sweden and 50 other international companies signed at COP27 last year, calls for decarbonization of industrial activities and the adoption of legislation to address climate change in accordance with the Paris Agreement.

What can the clothing business do to combat this global warming? The damaging effects of industrial operations that have so far left a sizable carbon footprint must be lessened in this business. According to the most recent UN study, although the garment industry has made considerable strides in this endeavour, it is still a long way from the desired outcome. 89% of the businesses that signed the charter have informed the public about their development.

Several sustainable research initiatives in the textile and clothing industries have received financing totaling US$ 8.9 million from UK Research and Innovation, a national funding organization for research and innovation in England. In order to foster innovation that will assist the sector transition to a sustainable business cycle, UKRI is collaborating with industry experts and other stakeholders to develop a data bank.

It is important to keep in mind that all of the aforementioned efforts will result in higher manufacturing expenses, which will raise the product’s selling price. This might need the fast fashion sector to adapt more quickly or attempt selling in less quantities while still generating healthy profit margins. It is anticipated that the age of low-cost products would come to an end as a result of the climate catastrophe, which must be handled by all parties involved. (Global Data).

HONDURAS

A $2 million grant from USAID has been given to the Wilson College of Textiles in North Carolina to teach 1,500 Hondurans in the spinning, weaving, knitting, dyeing, and printing of textiles and garments. Young Hondurans who desire to work in the textile and garment industries are encouraged to enrol in the Hilando Oportunidades programme. They collaborated on this training with Honduran university Universidad Technologica Centroamericana (UNITEC).

The key component of this training is patterned skill development, according to Melissa Sharp, Director of the Zeis Textiles Extension (ZTE) Association from Wilson College, who is also the project’s coordinator. This can give participants the ability to work in the textile and apparel industry and further open up opportunities for them to develop themselves to become professionals in their respective fields. As evidence of their proficiency, trainees are given a credential certificate from Credly by North Carolina State.

In addition to giving Hondurans a road to work and a better future, this training relationship creates a regional textile supply chain for the North Carolina market, according to Wilson College’s dean of textile technology. (Just Style)

AUSTRALIA

Australia’s Circular Sourcing is an organisation that aids in the distribution of surplus scraps of fabric from well-known designers. Through this institution, excess fabric may be sold to micro, small, medium, and even household companies, preventing the accumulation of textile stock.

According to a survey done in Australia in 2022, there may be up to 10,000 tonnes of leftover fabric lying across the nation that has been underused and has turned into garbage that must be thrown away. Circular Sourcing’s founders acknowledged that while their organisation cannot entirely resolve the issues associated with used textile waste, they do provide a critical fix to guarantee that the remaining fabric may still be used as effectively as feasible.

The Australian Circular Business Innovation Centre helped fund this initiative in 2022 after realising the enormous potential of circular sourcing. The leader of the project team at Circular Sourcing emphasised that the textile sector needs help from Circular Sourcing to go from a linear economy to a circular economy in the future.

Leila Naja Hibri, CEO of the Australian Fashion Council, added that this ground-breaking effort from Circular Sourcing plays a significant part in assisting the fashion industry’s transition to sustainable economic practises that allow designers to lessen the amount of accumulated fabric scrap, reuse fabric scraps, or recycle fabric scraps.

In carrying out this project Circular Sourcing is partnering with: Meriel Chamberlain (Full Circle Fibers), Stephen Morris-Moody (MTK), Dewi Cooke (The Social Studia) and Tim Harve, The Business Pickle.

FINLAND

A grant has been given to the Finnish company Spinnova for a project to create fibres from textile and agricultural waste. The goal of this project is to make it possible to recycle the fibre made by Spinnova by include components in the manufacturing process. In addition to reducing energy during manufacturing, it is anticipated that this fibre production technique would create new commercial prospects and boost Spinnova’s competitiveness.

One of Spinnova’s founders and its chief technology officer, Juha Salmela, stated that the grant will aid in the company’s efforts to advance so that it can conduct fibre production activities for raw materials for the textile industry more effectively and in accordance with plans for sustainable production processes.

Since April 15, 2023, up until April 14, 2025, a grant of 3.9 million euros has been acquired, accounting for 50% of the project’s overall cost.

In order to carry out this initiative, Spinnova and the Portuguese Tearfil Company struck an agreement to develop yarn manufacturing. The yarn spinning production process will be carried out at factories and R&D facilities in Portugal.

The goal of the partnership with Portuguese Tearfil is to enable commercial processing of the Spinnova-researched fibre in spinning mills. A cyclical production technique is being used by Spinnova to create fibres that will be used as the basis for textiles and garments. They boosted the volume of recyclable textile fibre manufacturing at the beginning of last year. These completely biodegradable fibres are manufactured using raw materials derived from locally grown wood. (Just Style).

EGYPT

There was a groundbreaking for a textile industry at Egypt’s Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCONE). A Chinese corporation invested in the facility, which is situated in the Sokhna Integrated Industrial Area. The plant will use innovative manufacturing processes to create high-quality, ecologically friendly textiles and clothing.

Waleid Gamal El-Dein, the chairman of SCZONE, emphasised that the organisation is dedicated to promoting the growth of factories, particularly within the context of Chinese partnership and investment cooperation, including by providing facilities in the form of: infrastructure provision, development of supporting legislation, trade agreements that provide access to markets for the products produced, and others.

The construction of the six buildings at the Cady Egypt facility is anticipated to take over three phases. With a 50 thousand tonne capacity, the first phase will begin in 2023 and be utilised to make ecologically friendly textiles. One of the largest firms in the industrial sector, this one has a manufacturing area of 145.5 thousand square metres. It is anticipated that the investment, which cost US$ 60 million, will bring in US$ 150 million in sales.

The Belt and Road Initiative of the Chinese government celebrated its tenth anniversary, and factory executives thanked SCZONE for preparing all facilities for investment by major Chinese firms. Polyester fabrics, dyeing, printing, and finishing procedures are all produced at this facility. China will identify Egypt as the primary recipient of its foreign investment in accordance with the Belt and Road Initiative programme.

INDIA

A Basic Assessment Report on the circularity process of the Indian textile and apparel sector was published as a result of collaboration between the Aditya Birla Conglomerate, the German Development Institute GIZ, and the Indian Centre for Environmental Education. The Approaches for Circularity Textile and Apparel Industry in India (ACTAII) study includes information on this sector’s activities and possible improvements as well as insights on resource consumption and waste treatment.

The ACTAII initiative seeks to assist the Indian textile and apparel sector in implementing circular economy concepts at all production-related phases. Guidelines for the circular economy, circularity training materials, and partnership models with start-up businesses in the textile and clothing industries have all been established for this.

The results of this institution’s research showed that there are several potential to minimise waste and overcome obstacles such as poor government backing, a lack of supporting infrastructure, and a lack of consumer knowledge of environmental preservation.

The research started off by concentrating on the state of the circularity practises in the textile and apparel industry, the difficulties the sector was facing, key issues, and viable interventions for achieving circularity. The mapping of fibre and textile waste was done after visits to several facilities involved in the manufacturing chain of operations.

Identification has been done in a number of circularity-related fields, such as:

• Waste management: By employing recycled resources, better product design, and ecologically friendly materials, waste is attempted to be reduced.
• Development that supports circularity in the form of creating waste collection centers and waste recycling centers.
• Socialization of the benefits of circularity to all stake holders
• Encourage the establishment of circularity-supporting policies by the government.
• Industrial R&D that quickens the adoption of circularity
• Encourage customer participation by making it simple for them to recycle and buy environmentally friendly goods.
• End-of-life management of textile and apparel products
• The 6 R method, which stands for “Redesign, Reduce, Reuse, Remanufacture, Recycle, and Regenerate,” is put into practise.

(Red B-Teks/Indra I)

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