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There are more and more clothing brands that are committed to making fashion recycling polluting materials, ranging from tires to plastic bottles.A European example and several Colombians.By 2030, about 8.5 billion people in the world will need clothes.A fact that will represent the planet the preparation, production and consumption of at least 102 million tons of clothing, that is, the equivalent of having 500.000 million t -shirts in a huge container.

This is only one of the data that is shooting a growing world concern for the sustainability of the fashion industry, and for the level of consciousness and social responsibility that the clothing brands of the entire planet should have.And while the social control of consumers on clothing brands is increasingand carry out innovations to insert recycled inputs or circular fashion processes that mitigate their socio -environmental impact.Some call this phenomenon the ‘era of sustainable fashion’.

After the Rana Plaza building, in Bangladés, collapsed over 5.000 Fashion Industry Workers in April 2013, and that 1.133 people died there, the fashion responsible consumption movement became more audible to point out what is wrong within this industry.Since then citizen movements arose, such as Fashion Revolution, which seek to promote simple actions so that people can impact and generate progressive changes in the fashion industry.Recognized designers such as Stella McCartney have joined the #Whomademycloth campaign, driven by this group to raise awareness in producers and consumers about the origin of clothing that circulates in the world."Show your label and question #Whomademyclothes at the Fashion Revolution Day," he published in April 2015 on his Instagram next to a photo in which he showed the marquilla of one of the coats of his own brand.In this way, thousands of people joined in the world who commemorated Bangladés' tragedy to amplify questions to fashion producers and consumers.These and many other questions are giving rise to new ways to address this business. En España, por ejemplo, la marca Ecoalf se ha concentrado en fabricar prendas, accesorios y calzado basados en la innovación a partir de desechos de plástico que son recuperados del fondo del mar, de entre las basuras que quedan atrapadas en las redes de pescadores cuando salen a faenar.From there, the brand obtains part of the recycled polyester that they use in their processes and garments that are famous among some personalities in the world.

Carol Blázquez, the company's sustainability and innovation director, explains that her goal has always been focused on creating sustainable models.Since 2015, the company has extracted 500 tons of garbage from the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea and, now, work in the development of new materials in the world of recycling that offer a low environmental impact.“The materials we use most are the recycled polyester from plastic water bottles, although there is also a small part that is made with tissue remains, which are discarded from factory cuts or clothing manufacturing processes”, Underline Blázquez.Soon, the brand will launch sandals in whose production process recycled tire powder has been used for soles, and the rest is based on the use of recycled coffee poses.For the production processes of all these recycled materials that it uses, Ecoalf maintains agreements with factories in the different phases of the production process.“We often also work hand with them to develop specific materials according to our needs and sometimes when they are really very innovative things.And before entering the industrial process, what we do is work at the laboratory level, in technology centers, ”says the director.After the research and development stage come the first tests to check if the qualities work."When we verify that this whole process is adequate, we pass it to the industrial scale," he adds.

En un tiempo en que la moda se sitúa como la segunda industria más contaminante del planeta –por encima de la de manufactura, la de energía y la de transporte–, según advirtió la Conferencia de la ONU sobre Comercio y Desarrollo (UNCTAD) en 2019, el mundo enfrenta la urgente necesidad de tomar acciones que obliguen a las marcas a aportar soluciones reales para mitigar su huella de carbono y sus efectos sociales, aunque esto impacte en el precio final de sus productos.For the director of Ecoalf “there are actions that have very high costs, but that is still worth it because today the environmental impact is very high and, in addition, it implies the awareness of society to understand what the environmental problems areto those who are facing and that it is possible to put solutions ".The spokeswoman for this Spanish brand emphasizes that as humanity "we have to change the conception between value and price, and understand that there is nothing more expensive than finishing exhausting this planet and its natural resources".

Sustainable clothing and accessories brands with socio -environmental responsibility objectives are an emerging niche in fashion in Colombian. Aquí tan solo algunas apuestas nacionales:Paréntesis​Una marca antioqueña de vestuario sostenible que elabora prendas a partir de fibras “supra recicladas de botellas PET pos consumo” y de algodón “recuperado de sobrantes textiles”.In a year of existence, this brand has transformed 16.366 PET bottles in their garments.Cyclus​Esta marca de bolsos bogotana trabaja con “materiales naturales al 100% y reciclados” desde 2014.Its star product is the bags made with tires collected in workshops and roads throughout Colombia.Urban Rock Hace parte de la tendencia de marcas locales que le apuestan a mezclar versatilidad con funcionalidad, creando colecciones con pocas prendas y stock limitado para potenciar la versatilidad de la ropa y motivar un consumo responsable entre sus seguidores.

Domingo Domain ** With information from Efe Reports

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