f ashion. Salin and Rissanen wanted to emphasise not only the amount of waste but the manu facturing process itself. It has become more obscure as manufacture has been moved to Asia. T H E DA R K S I D E O F T H E C LOT H I N G I N D U ST RY
tern cutting has to be included in the design work. Attitudes need to change, too. “For the clothing industry the fabric is often like raw material that is deemed pretty worthless. However, to have been able to make fabric out of fibres is, in itself, a result of investing in resources such as water, energy, dye and workforce”, reminds Rissanen. There are, of course, differences in clothing. Manufacturing trousers or socks is easier when trying to reduce the amount of waste fabric. It is not the same with shirts or dresses. “Sometimes it’s impossible not to have leftover material. That is why we need companies that can recycle fabric as efficiently as possible.”
is something Timo Rissanen knows about. He graduated as a fashion designer in Australia and worked in the industry there. Nowadays he is a professor of Fashion Design and Sustainability at Parsons School of Design in New York. It is one of the most famous design schools in the world. There sustainable development is a part of the curriculum for each student. “Young people here are much more environmentally conscious than ten years ago. That’s mainly due to the climate change”, says Rissanen during LO C AT E D O N Y R J Ö N K AT U , a street in central the Skype interview. The environmental ideology Helsinki, is a shop that at first sight appears to will become a part of each aspect of the clothing be an ordinary clothes store. T-shirts on hangers industry in the future. According to Rissanen it and shirts and hoodies folded on the shelves. The is evident that consumers will colour palette is simplistic, be demanding clothes that and there is a special reason are ethically and ecologically for it. The clothing is made produced. using fabric that comes from “Our goal is having On the other hand, the recycled textile waste and industry must change also. nothing is re-dyed. waste in from one door Rapid growth of population “In the beginning we had increases the demand of cotonly white, grey and black and finished product ton – a demand that cannot be garments. Those were the only out the other.” met. Rather, we should reduce colours we knew would always the production of cotton as it be available”, says Jukka Pecauses pollution and requires sola, one of the five founders massive amounts of water. of Pure Waste Textiles. The good news is that in Even though this is not the Finland and around the world new technologies only company in the world to recycle fibres, Pure are being developed to help make a change. “Yet, Waste is one of few that operate using yarn that there is no single answer to solve the problem. We is 100 percent recycled. This is why international need a lot of different solutions to tackle issues entities are also interested in the company, and throughout the process, be it growing the cotton newspapers, such as the highly respected business plant, manufacturing the apparel or recycling the magazine Forbes, have written articles about it. waste.” Pure Waste recycles and manufactures Rissanen specialises in zero waste design textiles in Tiruppur, southern India. The area is meaning that the manufacturing process proknown for its clothing industry. The cutting waste duces as little as possible, or, no waste at all. from factories is sorted according to type and The difficulty today is that mass production is colour. Then the fibres are opened mechanically, scattered: the design takes place in one location spun into yarn and woven into fabric. and the pattern making and cutting in another. In 2013 when the company started, the obThe different phases do not necessarily even hapjective was to manufacture solely yarn and fabric pen in the same country. using 100 percent recycled material. Jukka Pesola According to Rissanen all phases need to be says they soon realised that people wanted also considered a part of the design process if we want finished products. Pure Waste then created a to get rid of the leftover material. Especially patbasic collection that stays pretty much the same
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