Accepting The Inevitable: Fabric Waste When cutting a new shape out of a square piece of paper, there will be scraps. So it is that when cutting the unique shapes of apparel patterns out of rectangular fabrics, there are also scraps. Lots of scraps.
To try and avoid this, most pattern graders who configure what’s known as the marker—a large piece of paper designating where to cut pattern pieces out of a huge, fresh piece of production fabric—attempt to align all pieces of a clothing pattern such that cutting waste is minimal. Nonetheless, we learned recently that 15% of fabric intended for clothing manufacturing ends up on a cutting room floor. Thus, the making of clothing involves millions of pieces of scrap fabric, which from the cutting room cleanup are added to piles of fabric in landfills across the globe. Until recently, there wasn’t much to be done about this. Though fabric waste can, in fact, be broken down and recycled into home and car insulation, few organizations that perform such recycling actually collect scraps. New York City’s GrowNYC, for example, which requests textiles to recycle, will only accept full garments or large cuttings. Even TerraCycle, one of the leading innovators in recycling what’s hard to recycle, notes that large cuttings are easier to sort in order to recycle properly. But one innovation is tackling the mountains of debris and helping brands take ownership of their smaller pieces of waste. How? By turning them into reengineered fabric. Once Trash, Now Treasure: The Re.Verso™ Process Re-Verso™ is a new production process that involves a circular manufacturing system for high-quality wool and cashmere. Pioneered and manufactured in Italy, Re.Verso™ spearheads a 100% transparent method of textile creation, through which the pre-consumer waste fabric and fibers of wool, cashmere and baby camel are collected and recycled into an entirely new material.
(To clarify, pre-consumer waste is waste generated in original production, or the scraps leftover from a cutting fresh fabric, as mentioned above. It has not been used or worn.) The process is a multi-stakeholder collaborating; a number of Italian fabric suppliers and engineers are working together to create a supply chain for fashion, specializing in Italian-made, sustainable fabrics. As it’s website states, “Re.Verso™ is the identifying trademark of an evolved supply chain, composed of [companies] Green Line and Nuova Fratelli Boretti, to which selected transforming partners as Filpucci, A. Stelloni Collection by Mapel and Antica Valserchio are added to get yarns, fabrics and knitwear, and all together they create a unique new offer of Re.Verso™”
The process (pictured above) involves factories and companies compiling their scraps and their production samples. The raw pre-consumer material to be recycled is sourced from all over Italy, and a handful other European countries, with the help of the mill Green Line. Green Line then sorts the fabrics and cleans them for re-spinning. Nuova Fratelli Boretti s.r.l. performs the shredding of the pieces. Filpucci re-spins the shredded fibers into yarns, with which A. Stelloni Collection by Mapel and Antica Valserchio (among other mills) can then make gorgeous new fabrics. The result is beautiful woolen textiles that are of the same quality as fabrics that are brand new, but which generate a much smaller carbon footprint, and don’t require the use of harmful chemicals or dyes. According to the eco-conscious textile hub and educational platform C.L.A.S.S., the environmental savings of Re.Verso™ are the following:
Savings for 1.000 Kg of Re.VerSo™ cashmere, as compared to virgin cashmere: -82% energy, -92% water, and -97% CO2. Savings for 1.000 Kg of Re.VerSo™ wool, compared to virgin wool: -76% energy, -89% water, and -96% CO2.
Soon after Re.Verso™’s development, it was presented at Première Vision’s Smart Square, and embraced into collections by Gucci and Stella McCartney. The process has also been used by Filippa K., Patagonia & Eileen Fisher. Since Re.Verso™ can be applied to a multitude of wools and cashmeres, it allows brands to reuse their own textile waste as a raw material—in fact, it welcomes retailers and brands to supply their pre-consumed wool and cashmere woven and knitted off cuts. The innovation therefore presents an attractive sourcing option to designers seeking to implement textile recycling not just into post-production waste management but into their pre-production design process. Brands who adopt the technology on are their way to being able to boast waste-conscious circularity in their sourcing and use of wool, cashmere and camel—natural materials that should be carefully sourced to avoid exploitation of their original resources. About Us At CommonShare, we understand the fashion industry inside and out—the good, the bad, and the potentially incredible. We are experienced and passionate product developers and sustainability experts who are raising the bar for a higher standard of doing business—socially, financially, and environmentally. Our mission is to enable a more efficient, less wasteful way of producing clothes and textiles. Our platform unites and aligns suppliers’ and buyers’ efforts and intentions with better network and commerce tools—providing forward-thinking buyers and brands a more optimal way to source fabrics. Our streamlined approach to sourcing, not only provides transparency, but it connects you with like-minded suppliers who are more connected to your brand and its initiatives than ever. Sign up to CommonShare today! For Brands [ Click here] For Suppliers [Click here].