Fashion giants including H&M and Gucci owner Kering could soon be recycling unused clothes in machines that turn them into fuel.
Ethical Fashion Group, which was set up by industry veteran Harold Tillman and represents 60,000 clothing firms across the sector, has teamed up with Hydrogen Utopia International (HUI), whose technology turns fabrics into carbon-free fuels.
Members including H&M and Kering as well as Vivienne Westwood and Roland Mouret will get access to HUI’s machines, which are the size of a small house.
Ethical Fashion Group, which was set up by industry veteran Harold Tillman (pictured with HUI founder Aleksandra Binkowska)
They turn polyester and other plastics into energy that they can use or pump into the grid.
The clothing industry is the world’s second biggest polluter behind oil and gas, producing around 92m tonnes of textile waste every day.
Tillman, the former boss of the British Fashion Council, hopes the ability to recycle the plastics used in clothing will cut the huge amounts being sent to landfills or incinerated.
Tillman, former boss of Jaeger and Aquascutum, said HUI’s technology will help the fashion industry ‘become part of the solution, rather than part of the problem’.
London-listed HUI’s founder Aleksandra Binkowska said shoppers are buying clothing made from plastic ‘often without knowing it’.
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