In recent years, clothing and textile brands have tried to capture the attention of young, trendsetting groups with fast fashion. This entailed multiple collection launches, the use of lower quality textiles, quick turn manufacturing, and integrated supply chains — in order to give consumers clothing in new styles at the price points they demand. Fast fashion, however, generates waste, accelerates global warming, and relies on textiles made with fossil fuels.
Fast fashion promotes a linear consumption model — from sourcing textiles, to manufacturing and distributing finished clothing pieces, to consumption and disposal by the end-customer. In contrast, sustainable fashion promotes a circular economic model — where responsible sourcing; socially conscious manufacturing; and reuse, repair, and recycling of finished goods. The result is more beneficial for resource consumption, reduces carbon footprints, and supports the communities and people involved in the clothing industry.
The fashion industry faces a variety of obstacles in transitioning to more sustainable methods of production, including the following:
- Durability. Because fast fashion emphasizes quick production, the durability of products decreases due to the quality of materials. Increasing the quality of zipper quality, seam quality, tear strength, and colorfastness can increase the durability of clothing and its reuse. [1]
- Recycling. Because of the prevalence of blended fibers, garments can be difficult to run through automated recycling sorters. These machines cannot readily separate some fibers, which impedes the subsequent recycling of the materials.
- Textile waste. The manufacturing process generates unused textiles, which are left unsold and then disposed of. In fact, according to some estimates, the equivalent of a truckload of clothing is sent to the landfill or incinerated somewhere in the world. [2]
- Pollution. Synthetic fibers shed micro plastics into waste water when textiles are laundered. Researchers estimate that up to 40,000 tons of microplastics are released into water every year when clothing is laundered in washing machines. [3]
- Environmental footprint. Because synthetic fibers are rooted in fossil-fuel production, they generated an increased carbon footprint. Researchers are investigating better organic fibers that don’t contribute so heavily to carbon emissions that exacerbate climate change.
- Greenwashing. Greenwashing is when a company uses environmental claims to market their products to customers, but in reality has little evidence to substantiate their efforts. They rely on the veneer of environmental action to drive awareness with consumers, but have little to show for their efforts. More rigorous environmental reporting, as well as audit mechanisms, can mitigate these problems.
A Digital Product Passport shows sustainability information for a garment, helping consumers know about its sourcing, production methods, recycling potential, and other pertinent data. It helps consumers compare products based on sustainability attributes, and helps drive transparency into the fashion supply chain.
At its core, it consists of a data carrier (like a QR code) that helps connect consumers to a manifest of sustainability data they can review. The Digital Product Passport for fashion concept is being driven by legislation in the European Union, which anticipates that certain priority industries — including textiles and fashion — will need to affix Digital Product Passports to the labels, hangtags, or documentation accompanying products.
A Digital Product Passport can help drive sustainable fashion across the value chain, delivering transparency information to producers, distributors, consumers, and more. Those that source raw fibers for textiles benefit from increased trust in sourcing methods, and they can also facilitate raw material recovery for remanufacturing. Clothing manufacturers, for their part, can verify authentic product with transparent data from a Digital Product Passport, and facilitate warranty claims and recalls.
Fashion retailers get access to essential product information, and can more readily identify a product. Fashion consumers get access to multiple benefits when using a Digital Product Passport: they can compare products based on sustainability attributes; they can get access to care, maintenance, and usage instructions; they can obtain services related to the garment, like maintenance, or repair; and they can locate recycling services. Finally, recyclers and repairers can act more efficiently too: they can enables automated sorting of materials and get access to info for maintenance, repair or upgrade.