Rather than address this crisis of overconsumption by limiting the amount they produce and encouraging shoppers to buy fewer items, Zara is simply using the guise of sustainability to change more products and protect the guilty conscience of its consumers.
This month, fast-fashion brand Zara launched a limited-edition line of “sustainable fashion” made from polyester created from captured carbon emissions.
It follows the December 2021 launch of a limited-edition capsule collection, which was the first clothing line to wear LanzaTech technology to convert carbon emissions into fabric, rather than making items from virgin fossil resources.
Zara claims that capturing and reusing carbon emissions from industrial processes limits the direct release of these emissions into the atmosphere and helps limit the use of virgin fossil resources. However, the brand has previously come under fire for its role in the fast fashion industry, fueling a culture of overproduction and the “buy to use once” mentality.
When they launched this innovative new collection in 2021, Zara’s owner Inditex reported that net profits had doubled to 3.2 billion euros.
So how do you turn carbon emissions into clothing?
according to a recent report, LanzaTech technology captures CO2 from industrial, agricultural or domestic waste processes. Through a fermentation process, it is transformed into ethanol, a fundamental component in the production of materials such as PET used in polyester thread.
The final PET contains 20% MEG (monoethylene glycol) made from recycled carbon emissions and 80% PTA (purified terephthalic acid).
The organization’s partnership with Inditex has made it possible to capture emissions from steel mills, which would otherwise be released into the atmosphere, and then recycle the captured emissions into Lanzanol (ethanol) through a fermentation process. Lanzanol is then converted into low carbon monoethylene glycol (MEG) by India Glycols Limited, which is then converted into low carbon polyester yarn used by Zara.
However, the resulting textiles are not 100 percent made captured carbon.
The MEG provided by Lanzatech makes up 20 percent of the final polyester, with the remaining 80 percent coming from purified terephthalic acid (PTA).
So is this latest company really a step in the right direction for the fashion industry in its goal of reducing emissions? Or is it an advanced form of greenwashing, hiding a global crisis of overproduction and overconsumption?
Is the collection just a green wash?
Processes like this are notoriously expensive and, on the surface, may seem like good cause, but oftentimes these elaborate schemes cover up a much broader industry-wide problem.
Simply put, brands like Zara are responsible for perpetuating a culture that encourages people to consume as much clothing as possible, allowing them to continue to produce tons of clothing every day that are likely to end up in landfill with a life cycle. extremely short.
This is not to say that LanzaTech’s work is not commendable, but it is by no means a reason to let Zara go free because of the devastating environmental impacts that its production and sales models have on the world.
In March 2022, Inditex FY21 revenues grew by 36% to 27.7 billion euros – the brand’s profits are skyrocketing and based on the fact that this is due to selling more clothing, it seems like a drop in the bucket to suggest that only a single line of all Zara’s production was made in part from of recycled carbon emissions.
Orsola de Castro, co-founder and creative director of fashion revolutionbelieves that a brand must address the root causes of its impact, not just its effects… “a higher quality of life for supply chain workers and a decrease in overproduction for its customers.
Anything else should not be seen as a step in the right direction, but as a way to confuse well-intentioned customers, also known as greenwashing,” he says.
Dr. Stephen Wise, Director of Strategic Development at environmental biotech company Advetec agrees.
To Wise, the idea of using technology to remove carbon from the air may sound like an attractive and sensible solution to our growing climate crisis, but in reality, using and storing carbon capture is at best , a green wash. due to fossil fuels and carbon emission processes in the first place.
“The so-called solution is an expensive and energy-consuming plaster on a global problem: prevention is no cure and a surefire way to divert money and political attention from the real, bold changes we need.”
The Carbon Emission Processes We Ignore
As for the feasibility and overall effectiveness of the project, Wise notes that “carbon can only be captured at the power generation stage and doesn’t take into account any of the logistics involved in industries like fashion.
“Any carbon emitted through sea or air transport of materials and products cannot be captured and will therefore continue to be released into the atmosphere as emissions,” it adds.
Additionally, greenwashing can often be used as a cover in the fashion industry for more sinister and unethical practices, such as modern day slavery and other human rights abuses in supply chains.
De Castro says that without an ethical production process, any attempt at sustainability is futile. “Unless all workers in the supply chain are paid a living and living wage, and unless fast fashion brands like Zara commit to producing properly rather than over-producing, everything else is a patch on an open wound. “, he says.
Companies in the industry clearly recognize the growing movement within the industry to reduce emissions, but initiatives like this only provide cover for shoppers to continue buying and wasting more.
Instead of addressing this crisis of overconsumptionBy limiting the amount they produce and encouraging shoppers to buy fewer items, Zara is simply using the guise of sustainability to switch more products and protect the guilty conscience of its consumers.
Source: www.euronews.com