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Let’s Take Responsibility

• By  Reena Mital
• April 18, 2024

Over the last few months, several reports have attempted to question the work being done towards creating a more sustainable textile value and supply chain. Every sustainability worker understands the enormity and the Herculean challenges of this task. The choice is always between profit (with status quo) versus sustainability (with some changes and investments). And profitability wins almost every time, also thanks to the consumer who is still largely unaware of the dark side of fashion, or is immune to it because of the heavy investments that brands put into greenwashing. Recycling is becoming a big industry in India. Of course, it’s not a perfect product, technology and solutions are still in the making. However, recent reports have equated the downfall of one European textile recycling company to the end of textile recycling. Is this shortsightedness, or a campaign against a more sustainable industry?

Every retailer insists on a traceable supply chain. And yet we come across documented and undocumented instances of breach of traceability. The supply chain players talk about using the best and latest analytics tools, AI, etc, etc, to be right in time for the market, with the perfect product so that there are no unsold inventories. Yet we have Chile’s Atacama Desert. India, a bustling apparel retail market, is on sale for 9 months out of 12 each year. Clearly, analytics is missing. And that’s why we produce more and more clothes that no one wants to buy.

The responsibility of a clean supply chain lies more with the retailers and buyers who need to consolidate their offerings, while setting targets for sustainable textile usage in their collections, which need to be truly traceable. The responsibility also lies with the technology and solution providers to ensure that clothes can be sustainably and economically recycled so that the clothes currently on this planet can last for the next six generations.

The responsibility lies with trend forecasters too who must revisit the need to change colours and styles every few months. Forecast if you must, but the push has to be towards sustainable, bio-based materials, processes chemicals, dyes, finishes, towards materials and inputs that have the lowest carbon impact on the environment and the people. Make it fine to be repeat costumes, carry forward the fashion trends from one season to the next. Is fashion so unimaginably ugly that it needs to change every few months? 

Over the last few months, several reports have attempted to question the work being done towards creating a more sustainable textile value and supply chain. Every sustainability worker understands the enormity and the Herculean challenges of this task. The choice is always between profit (with status quo) versus sustainability (with some changes and investments). And profitability wins almost every time, also thanks to the consumer who is still largely unaware of the dark side of fashion, or is immune to it because of the heavy investments that brands put into greenwashing.