In the ever-evolving world of fashion, trends emerge and fade in the blink of an eye. Amidst this rapid turnover, there is one of a kind revolution in force nowadays, that is changing the way and habits of how the clothing industry is producing, distributing, consuming and recycling, in a radical way.
On a global scale, the textile and apparel industry are one of the largest polluters, responsible for something like 92 million tons of textile waste every year: China (20M Tons) and the US (17M Tons) clothing and textiles, at least the 7 per cent of the total amount of waste in global landfill space, for 80 to 100 billion new clothing garments produced globally every year, accounting for 6 to 8 per cent of total global carbon emissions, or some 1.7 billion tonnes in carbon emissions per year (Taking climate action: Measuring carbon emissions in the garment sector in Asia (ilo.org).
With a growing awareness of these environmental challenges, sustainability has become a paramount concern, and one of the key drivers of change is the rise of recycled fabrics. Today, an increasing number of brands use recycled fabric to create sustainable clothing items and lower the environmental impact, from production to waste management and upcycling. Sustainable fashion includes all the destinations of the textile and garment industry, from high end products to fast fashion brands, from underwear, to swimwear and sportswear to the daily and fashion clothing apparel, which represents the most challenging consumer habit to slowly change and control – by recycling and upcycling re-usable garments and materials – in order to achieve what we call today “circularity”.
In the past 10 years recycled materials started to raise the attention of the most foresighted and conscious companies in textile industry: from brands and distributors, to fabric and components producers, to raw material supplier, we have already become today a unite movement that is tackling the change to lead the industry toward a better practice and offer. From the environmental impact of the production parts of the supply chain to the social and more conscious choices from the brands and most important the final consumer.
The race to switch quickly to more sustainable practices in textile manufacturing, at the beginning was perceived just as a trend more than a soon-to-become requirement, and only by those few suppliers who were capable to sense, pioneer and manage the challenges that working and developing recycled raw materials brings.
Hung Yen K&D started this journey in 2016 with the introduction of post-consumer recycled Polyester fabrics from PET bottles. It is thanks to the contributions of companies like ours, that the discussion around sustainable materials have already been lifted to a higher level today, introducing topics such as – in a relatively short-term productive perspective – bio-based yarns and fabrics, biodegradable chemicals and dyestuff, also for synthetic fibers, to reach 100% circularity also for swimwear, sportswear and underwear applications.
Man-made fiber, or engineered materials such as warp-knit elastomeric fabric such as Recycled Polyamide, Recycled Polyester and Recycled Spandex – beside the low maintenance required for the long term preservation of the garments – are inherently durable, thanks to the nature of their components.
However, what made the difference with Hung Yen Knitting & Dyeing – and allowed us to position our name at the forefront of the supply chain as sustainable innovators – was the capability to widen the offer of our fabric’s collections to more conscious choices, anticipating the market demand and working in these years to improve the offer and the quality of our recycled collections.
Today we are working to elevate the quality of our products by pushing the boundaries of our R&D activities further and achieve always innovative sustainable solutions, advanced functional properties for sportswear and longer lifespan for both, swimwear and sportswear garments made with our fabric, empowering directly brands and final consumers, making them to move faster toward their circularity targets as partners rather than just suppliers for the massive change that the industry is required to achieve fast.
Hung Yen Knitting & Dyeing Team
