El 45% de las prendas incluidas en “Join Life”, la línea publicitada como sostenible de Zara, contiene fibras sintéticas, materiales obtenidos a partir de los combustibles fósiles cuyo uso se ha disparado en las últimas décadas a medida que la industria de la moda ha acelerado sus procesos y recortado costes para mantener al mismo tiempo un ritmo de producción alto y unos precios de venta bajos.
Así lo expone el estudio Sintéticos Anónimos: La adicción de las marcas de moda a los combustibles fósiles, hecho público este miércoles, en el que la fundación Changing Markets saca los colores a gigantes del textil como Inditex, Nike, Primark o H&M, y tanto a marcas del “fast fashion” —término que se usa para equiparar la moda barata a la comida basura (“fast food”, en inglés)—, como a firmas de lujo.
"A bottle should become a bottle and not inflate into something that will inevitably end in a landfill"
In total, the Foundation evaluated the collections and climatic commitments of 46 fashion companies from Europe and North America, and lashed out against the “false solutions” for which the majority opts: more than three quarters (85%) of the marks analyzedThey plan to reach sustainability standards using fibers obtained from recycled plastic bottles, a “direct route and incineration,” Janging Markets judges.
As planet to specialist Ximena Banegas, of the fossil fashion campaign of this organization:."The recycled polyester made of PET bottles is being used as the magical pill that will fix the problem of pollution and textile waste, and make the consumer believe that by buying a recycled polyester shirt, everything will be solved"."A bottle should become a bottle and not inflate into something that will inevitably end in an incinerator or landfills," Banegas abounds.
In a previous report launched in February this year, the organization already revealed the increasingly notable bet of the textile sector by synthetic fibers such as polyester, whose use has doubled in twenty years until it is found in more than half of the garments thanWe dress.
According to the sector data, it is estimated that in 2030 three quarters of the garments in the market will include synthetic, “of which 85% will be polyester, a material produced from fossil fuels such as oil and fractured gas,”Emphasize the study.
Changing Markets also recalls that the production of synthetic fibers current.
In the new report, specialists focused on analyzing sustainability campaigns and commitments to which the most popular fashion brands in the West intend to cope with the climate crisis that fossil fuels, with their extraction and burning, are themain culprits.They compared these 'green' objectives with the amount of synthetic in their garments.In addition to the star ingredient of the polyester, other fossil materials are nylon, elasteno and acrylic fibers.
“Some brands promote their sustainable image by stating that they use oceanic plastic or recycled fishing networks in their products;For example, Patagonia and Adidas announce their use of oceanic plastics as a better alternative - or an 'eco -innovator' substitute for the virgin plastic, and several companies market regenerated nylon made of fishing networks and other waste.This approach only deals with the consequences of the problem of plastic pollution, and does very recently to reduce the crisis of plastics at their origin, ”criticizes the document.
Experts also emphasize the fact that, as the demand for oil and gas from transport and energy sectors, "the oil and gas industry is increasingly committed to the growth of petrochemicals for survival".
In the "red zone", reserved for those who carry out the worst practices, either for lack of transparency in general, for lacking commitments to eliminate synthetic, or for the use of these materials in their lines marketed as' sustainable', are brands like Nike, the major user of synthetic for tonnage, primark, Patagonia and GAP.There are also Timberland, Walmart, The North Face, Lululemon, Burberry, Reebok, Gildan, Uniqlo, Target, Wrangler or VF Corporation.
As for the green image washing - or 'Greenwashing'—, the authors of the report concluded that 59% of the statements of European fashion companies in the field of sustainability lacked foundation or were “potentially deceptive” for consumers for consumers.In this sense, Zara and Gucci were the most careful, with the least number of statements considered deceptive. En el otro extremos se encuentran H&M y ASOS, pues el 96% y el 89% —respectivamente— de sus declaraciones “verdes” incumplían las recomendaciones.
In the last two decades, clothing production has doubled;clothing sales grow faster than world population or GDP."The average consumer now buys 60% more clothing than 15 years ago, although we use each garment many less times before getting rid of it," says the report.
Therefore, beyond concrete practices that can carry out some companies or others, Ximena Banegas attacks the system in which the textile sector currently operates, “a model in which we produce very quickly, with very low costs, with materials with materialscheap and disposable and producing garments that are mostly, in effect, very quickly discarded, ”he says.
But this change in the rhythms and ways of producing will arrive, according to Banegas, by the hand of blunt legislation capable of breaking with "that vicious circle of the dependence of cheap synthetic materials" and to ensure that the industry is based on the principles ofA "truly circular" economy.
In this sense, he trusts the next textile strategy of the European Union, which in his opinion “presents important opportunities to make these changes and to see how to eliminate image washing and thus empower consumers to have the right toolswith which to participate in the green transition that is yet to come ".
