This article starts with H&M, one of the fast fashion giants in the world today. Have you ever thought that it must be an insulator from the environment? It takes one to two weeks to design, produce, and sell, and consumers will also buy clothes that are not durable at all or will be idle soon after buying them, resulting in a waste of resources due to the change of styles. In fact, it is not the case. As early as 2008, H&M began to sell clothing made of environmentally friendly materials. In order to provide more people with more environmentally friendly choices, as well as promote the use of such materials and create future innovation needs, H&M invested a lot of manpower and material resources. They are one of the world’s largest users of sustainable cotton, recycled polyester and Tencel.
(The picture shows a top made of H&M Tencel fabric)
Maybe you think H&M is too far away from us, then let’s talk about fabrics. As an important textile town, Shengze is naturally at the forefront of the fabric industry. Regarding the issue of environmentally friendly fabrics, the author has also consulted some companies in Shengze that produce higher-end products. Wujiang Lukfu Textile is a company specializing in the production of rayon, tencel, cupro and other products that are much more expensive than polyester products but are relatively niche. Tencel, which can be called the green fiber product of the 21st century, has many advantages. For example, it has the “comfort” of cotton, the “strength” of polyester, and the “smoothness and drape” of silk. More importantly, in this era of environmental protection and sustainable development, “direct biodegradability” has become the most prominent shining point among its many advantages.
(The picture shows a rayon elastic double-layer fabric from Luk Fook Textile)
So why is such a good product so niche in the entire fabric market? It’s very simple. The reason is the same as raising plants and pets. The more expensive the species, the more delicate they are and the harder it is to “serve” them. According to Mr. Lu from Lukfook Textile, varieties such as rayon and tencel have relatively poor stability during printing, dyeing and finishing. It can be said that the current printing and dyeing level is in the throes of pain, with two defects:
1. The machine is not advanced enough and will cause greater harm to these “fragile” products.
2. Workers operate with high randomness and inadvertently and unintentionally damage some products.
Therefore, although fabrics such as rayon and Tencel are high in price and have less market competition, the frequency of order problems is much higher than that of polyester fabrics. But Mr. Lu also said: Although the loss rate is quite high, he still believes that environmentally friendly products are the future development trend. Although they are niche, they have replaced many silk products. In terms of corporate development and social responsibility awareness, he believes that this The prospect of biodegradable fabrics must be very optimistic.
When it comes to social responsibility, the author can’t help but think of the famous Swiss company-IKEA. In the past, its “quick throw” corporate image was criticized by many environmentalists. Out of corporate social responsibility, IKEA is also paying more and more attention to environmental issues. For example, last year it proposed a plan to replace the currently widely used plastic packaging with an environmentally friendly packaging material made from fungi. The fungus packaging can degrade within weeks, dozens of times faster than everyday plastic bags made from petroleum.
It can be seen that in the future, the development of enterprises must not only consider their own interests, but also gradually increase their awareness of responsibility for the entire society, and environmentally friendly fabrics are the general trend.
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