Every year, the French buy around 680 million tonnes of clothing. In 15 years, between 2003 and 2018, there has been a 60% increase in the way the French buy clothes and textiles. The study also showed that people in France are throwing away their clothes twice as quickly as before, with around 4 million items of clothing thrown away every year in 2018.
These staggering figures, which make even the most eminent specialists pale, protected in their offices where they cannot hear a fly flying, have given rise in recent years to indignation among the general public, whose enduring wish seemed to be to put a stop to this ecological and societal scourge. Today, the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) image of companies is a hot topic, because everyone knows that this data is relative but on every screen and at the tip of every tongue, spreading internationally in a universal way. In fact, it is estimated that it takes around 3.6 contacts with a brand for a consumer to make the necessary decision to buy an item. Induced or accidental, this new way of consuming is nonetheless essential, and should be taken into account as part of a group strategy or even by the most humble retailers.
These new ways of thinking and selection by the consumer are giving way to a more reasoned, sustainable and eco-socio-responsible Slow Fashion. This movement, at first sight representing all that is most praiseworthy, has in the end gradually extended its hand to new modes of consumption: renting, use (instead of possession), car-sharing, coworking, home and service exchanges, etc. For example, “in France, according to a study by the Lyst website cited by the public investment bank Bpifrance, searches for eco-responsible clothing have jumped by 50% in one year” **** “(+100% of searches [NDA: for certain articles] in the month of April 2020) “*².
The global issues surrounding eco-responsibility are now common knowledge, but what about the economic prism? This aspect, crucial to the functioning of the current capitalist and oligopolistic system, has often been overlooked by the general public, including certain specialists, until recent months, or even weeks. Recently, major retailers have been reshuffling the deck to feed the media’s news flow, which is already overwhelmed by subjects that are difficult to master and whose information is difficult to verify because it is constantly changing and itself uncertain. So here and there we read that “once the preserve of seasoned ecologists, the circular economy is
The profligacy of fabric masks manufactured to alleviate, we are told, the shortage of equipment in this unprecedented health context (#Covid19), going so far as to redouble their creativity by creating a specific logo for the textile industry to promote Made in France masks… In fact, according to some journalists, the masks would have “saved “* the textile industry for a while. Why this ambitious verb “to save”? In other words, despite the dazzling growth explained in the preamble, since 2019 the textile industry’s
By way of example, while the Christmas and last-minute gift-giving period was in full swing, “in December 2019, the clothing chains that are members of Alliance du Commerce recorded a like-for-like decline of -3.8% (including the Internet), in line with the overall clothing market, which fell by -4% (source: Panel Institut Français de la Mode [NDA: IFM Panel]).” *^1
Various factors are being studied by experts in the textile and trade sectors, but according to their initial conclusions, the COVID-19 (#coronavirus) pandemic may well have played a facilitating role. According to Marc Pradal, President of the Union française des Industries de la Mode et de l’Habillement (UFIMH) (French Union of Fashion and Clothing Industries), this may have helped to bring to light certain planned relocations and a return to a more ‘intelligent’ and sustainable mode of consumption, moving away from the temptations of Fast Fashion imposed by the major brands and textile chains. Marc PRADAL has also published a report on the relocation of the textile industry, entitled “Relocalisation-Reindustrialisation of the Fashion and Luxury sector”.
Finalised in the summer of 2020, it proposes some thirty very concrete measures to enable French companies to relocate, consolidate employment and sustainably improve their competitiveness, in order to help them find their second wind. “These measures, which would apply to all textile and clothing companies, are part of a wider sustainable fashion strategy (traceability, eco-design, LCA, recycling, etc.). We need to move towards a better-equipped, more balanced, innovative industrial value chain that favours ‘short circuits’ (…),” Marc Pradal told FashionUnited, which interviewed him. *^3
At the same time, it seems that second-hand goods are also gaining in popularity. In France, this “alternative” market is estimated to be worth around €1 billion. This is enough to breathe new life into the circular economy, which has long been familiar with this mode of consumption, but which has only recently taken off. It is also supported by businesses and by some fashion brands themselves, some of them even organising resale on their own e-commerce sites.
However, despite these obvious difficulties, the textile industry continues to mass-produce, producing no less than 624,000 tonnes per year in France, according to Eco-TLC (Eco-organisme du Textile, du Linge et de la Chaussure), or around 9.5 kg per person per year. *^4 Again according to Eco-TLC, “99.6% of sorted TLC is recovered, of which 58.6% is reused as is, 41% is recycled or recovered (10% in rags, 22.6% in fraying, 8% transformed into Solid Recovery Fuels and 0.4% eliminated with energy recovery). Only 0.4% is not recovered”.
These latest figures, recorded between 2018 and September 2019, could well continue to rise, particularly with the creation of factories and industries focused on eco-responsibility, textile (re)recovery and ethics (#RSE), such as the company that produces Blocbox and Ouatbox in France, These new cushioning materials are economical (30% savings on equivalent filling with other cushioning solutions = a packaging solution that is on average 25% less expensive than crumpled paper, according to a business case carried out by an independent logistics platform), efficient (effectiveness in protecting parcels verified and approved by the independent label PROTECTION EFFICIENCY) and eco-responsible (controlled, monitored and eco-designed sourcing, verified and approved by obtaining the label SUSTAINABLE SOURCING).
Only time and the official statistics of independent bodies and/or specialists will tell, but there is already every reason to believe that a breath of fresh air is blowing through the textile industry, like a soft protective wadding to envelop it and protect it from the constant disruptions and shocks sent by the economic crises of the 21st century.
If you’re interested in this subject, we invite you to read on via this very interesting slideshow : https://www.actu-environnement.com/media/pdf/news-26008-industrie-recyclage-horizon-2030.pdf
Sources :
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaO1t-g1080
** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–lpfPU-ahs
*** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3Gq8gwDEcA&t=62s
**** https://www.rtbf.be/tendance/green/detail_textile-quand-l-economie-circulaire-devient-un-argument-de-vente?id=10544511
² https://www.bpifrance.fr/A-la-une/Actualites/Les-recherches-concernant-les-vetements-ecoresponsables-ont-augmente-de-50-dans-l-Hexagone-!-50106
***** https://www.usinenouvelle.com/editorial/covid-19-la-bataille-de-la-production-le-textile-sauve-par-les-masques.N964491
*^1 https://www.alliancecommerce.org/bilan-de-la-consommation-textile-habillement-et-chaussure-en-decembre-2019/
1^3 https://fashionunited.fr/actualite/business/mode-et-habillement-30-propositions-pour-la-relocalisation-et-l-emploi-francais/2020070624237
*^4 https://www.ecotlc.fr/actualite-241-retrouvez-les-derniers-chiffres-cles-de-la-filiere.html