Interviews
Hong Kong's crusade against textile waste
07 Feb '12
2 min read
As per Hong Kong's Environment Protection Department statistics, the garment industry and people at large dumped around 234 tons of textile waste into domestic landfills during 2010.
Thus, eyeing environmental sustainability by generating awareness regarding the high levels of textile wastes that people in Hong Kong cast off each year, several celebrities, executives and fashion designers have teamed up to kick off the second annual EcoChic Design Award in the country.
The contest invites participation of fashion designing students and professionals, and encourages waste-reducing design principles like up-cycling, reconstruction and zero-waste.
Addressing the media, Judges of the contest explained the importance of sustainable fashion and highlighted their efforts on this front.
Christina Dean, Chief Executive of Redress, a NGO that launched the contest last year, said a brand is eco-friendly if the firm is active in reducing its waste cutting. Such green brands greatly attract the consumers, mainly those in Asia, as such textile waste serve as a direct cause of sufferance of several Asian communities.
She said they chose to work on this front as it is a sound way to gain environmental sustainability or at least to cut some negativities disturbing environmental balance.
Six contestants, who reach the final round of the competition, would get a chance to display their collections at the Hong Kong Fashion Week in July 2012, and the final winner would design an eco-friendly range by using recycled textiles for Hong Kong-listed clothing retail brand, Esprit Holdings Ltd.
Margaret Kutt, Manager for Sustainable Projects at Esprit, said they intend to utilize this opportunity as a means to evolve a reduced waste and recycled range. She added that the company would launch its new collection produced from its own production waste, in June this year.
An extension of the EcoChic Design Award would be launched as a separate contest in mainland China in March this year.
Thus, eyeing environmental sustainability by generating awareness regarding the high levels of textile wastes that people in Hong Kong cast off each year, several celebrities, executives and fashion designers have teamed up to kick off the second annual EcoChic Design Award in the country.
The contest invites participation of fashion designing students and professionals, and encourages waste-reducing design principles like up-cycling, reconstruction and zero-waste.
Addressing the media, Judges of the contest explained the importance of sustainable fashion and highlighted their efforts on this front.
Christina Dean, Chief Executive of Redress, a NGO that launched the contest last year, said a brand is eco-friendly if the firm is active in reducing its waste cutting. Such green brands greatly attract the consumers, mainly those in Asia, as such textile waste serve as a direct cause of sufferance of several Asian communities.
She said they chose to work on this front as it is a sound way to gain environmental sustainability or at least to cut some negativities disturbing environmental balance.
Six contestants, who reach the final round of the competition, would get a chance to display their collections at the Hong Kong Fashion Week in July 2012, and the final winner would design an eco-friendly range by using recycled textiles for Hong Kong-listed clothing retail brand, Esprit Holdings Ltd.
Margaret Kutt, Manager for Sustainable Projects at Esprit, said they intend to utilize this opportunity as a means to evolve a reduced waste and recycled range. She added that the company would launch its new collection produced from its own production waste, in June this year.
An extension of the EcoChic Design Award would be launched as a separate contest in mainland China in March this year.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India
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