The Big Interview
Overproduction & obsolescence – the unspoken scourges of textile sustainability
Prama Bhardwaj, long-time eco-advocate, campaigner and founder of Mantis World Limited, examines the sustainability challenges of the textiles industry.
I
’m on a mission and it’s to shine a light on overproduction. Over- manufacturing, overconsumption and obsolescence are enormous issues in our industry, yet no one’s talking about them, let alone, tackling them. How can it possibly be sustainable to create huge collections and manufacture vast colour ranges using gigantic amounts of natural resources and raw materials, yet the majority of decorators and customers are only looking for a few core shades? The rule of generating 80% of your sales with 20% of your SKUs is universally understood, yet there is a relentless pursuit of newness and extremes accelerating the cycle of production and disposal - the next shade, the biggest colour range, the most styles, and it all leads to overproduction - stock, styles and colours that will become the next surplus sale, the next clearance bargain, the next batch of clothing heading to landfill. We already know that 87% of the materials and fibres used to make clothing will end up in either incinerators or landfills*, so tackling obsolescence and its causes should be top of our list. Who really needs a 10th stock shade of brown? And what even is the difference between Roasted Peanut, Syrup and Warm Tan??
Excessively large ranges contribute significantly to unnecessary resource consumption in the manufacturing process, including water, energy, and raw materials, as well as unwarranted dyeing and chemical treatments. With some very rough maths, I estimate that the European imprintables industry generates over 10 million discontinued and therefore obsolete garments every year. If it takes up to 7,000 l of water and 2.6 kg of CO2 to make one conventional cotton t-shirt**,
| 38 | November 2023
the scale of wastage becomes eye- watering very quickly.
Let’s make a sustainability-driven, conscious decision to move away from the fast fashion model with ‘seasonal collections’ where colours and styles come and go. Another shade of pink may appear appealing for the summer, but what happens to the outsizes of Drunk-Tank Pink (yes, that is genuinely the name of a colour) that are left at the end of the season? Singular, no repeat production, means more unusable stock left on the shelves. There are also huge financial implications for obsolete products. Take the warehousing, shipping and distribution costs alone - the financial loss brands make on clearing out discontinued stock is momentous, imagine being able to save that money and invest it into better conditions for factory workers or fairer prices for
farmers - just visualise the positive impact for them and their communities. At Mantis World, we are reducing the size of our ranges and limiting new additions to concentrate on the SKUs where there’s a clear and demonstrable demand, rather than following the window-shopping mentality of adding eye-catching styles that draw the buyer in, but rarely actually sell. We are also committed to a minimum lifespan of three years for every style in the range. As an industry, we have to address the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals ***, Goal 12 in particular - adopting responsible consumption and production patterns. More sustainable practices mean a shift towards more eco-friendly fibres, backed up by genuine certifications and accreditations. Exact figures will vary by geographical location and time, but organic cotton fabric uses up to 88% less water than conventional cotton ****. Despite the hype
www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
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