Recycled clothes shaping up as the next fashion trend

In 2010, the world consumed a record 69.7 million tonnes of clothes. That's up from 47.4 million tonnes 10 years earlier, according to statistics from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation.

The figures translate to about 10kg of clothes per person in 2013, up from 6.7kg 10 years earlier. That may not sound like a lot but the world population is growing, as are Western habits. Apparel consumption is likely to keep increasing, an alarming thought as most worn-out clothing goes straight to the landfill.

"Until now old clothes have often been used as filler material for underneath wall-to-wall carpeting, but when the carpeting is removed or the building is knocked down, the material goes to the landfill anyway," says Lewis Perkins, senior vice-president of the San Francisco-based Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, which develops sustainable new uses for discarded products.

Now several companies are trying to change that equation. Scientists at Stockholm's Royal Institute of Technology have developed a way of recreating cotton, which not only accounts for roughly a third of the world's textile consumption but is also in danger of becoming a scarce resource as the world's increasing population needs more land for food production.

In June, a group of Swedish companies presented the world's first garment made entirely from recycled cotton: a yellow dress that looks no different from the fashion range at H&M or Zara.

"The scalability of this process is enormous," says Henrik Norlin, business development manager at Re:newcell, which made the material. "The technology allows us to recycle all materials that contain cellulose."