The statistics surrounding textile recycling are enough to make anyone with a conscience cringe: Americans toss over 80 pounds of used clothing each year, and 60 percent of clothing ends up in incinerators or landfills within a year.
What’s more, recycling of textiles is virtually non-existent, with less than 1 percent of existing textiles going back into textiles, according to Cyndi Rhoades, CEO/founder of Worn Again Technologies.
In Sourcing Journal’s “Closing the Loop” webinar, Rhoades joined MeiLin Wan, vice president, textile sales at Applied DNA, to discuss the challenges and solutions of textile recycling and how companies can buy, sell and design with circularity in mind. Given that the total number of garments the average consumer purchases each year increased by 60 percent from 2000 to 2014, there’s a lot clearly that needs to change.
