Many garment brands promote their products using sustainability claims, such as garments made with recycled textile content. Using recycled materials reduces the need for virgin raw materials and helps divert part of the enormous amount of textile waste generated by the fashion industry into input materials for new products. Since this practice contributes to lowering the industry’s environmental footprint, it is often presented as sustainable and responsible. But what about the rights of the workers who process this textile waste? Are their working conditions considered when garment brands attach a sustainability label to a dress made with recycled content?
In Arisa’s new publication, Blind spots in textile recycling: Fashion’s sustainability claims overlook workers’ rights, 20 fast fashion brands were assessed on whether they include the working conditions of textile recycling workers in their due diligence practices. This assessment was based on a review of the brands’ public disclosures, complemented by a short survey sent to the companies. Earlier research has shown that many textile recycling workers in South Asia face harsh working conditions, including serious health and safety risks, low wages, and a lack of formal employment relations and social protection.
The 20 fast fashion brands approached mainly link the use of recycled textile materials to environmental benefits, while making no reference to workers’ rights or working conditions. Many companies appear to have limited awareness of these parts of their supply chains, offer reasons for not including them in their due diligence processes, or shift responsibility to their suppliers. While there is a clear knowledge gap among brands, there is an urgent need to assess textile recycling from a labour and human rights perspective, alongside environmental considerations.
Read more about the 20 fast fashion brands and how they do—or do not—address workers’ rights in their textile recycling supply chains here.
This publication is part of a mini-series on textile recycling. Earlier, Arisa published: The Fast Fashion Waste Mountain that explains the growing pile of global textile waste and the different routes to reuse, recycling and landfill that this waste can take; The human cost of textile recycling: Case study India, that exposes the hidden side of textile recycling in India; and The human cost of textile recycling: Case study Pakistan, that gives a sneak peek into the textile recycling sector in Pakistan.
