A new future for clothes that are no longer worn. Wear to Fashion, a truly cyclical future for fashion

Eliminating the Mass Disposal of Clothing 　　　　　　　　　　　ECOMMIT and ITOCHU Corporation are facing a social issue

Massive waste in the fashion industry is a major problem around the world. According to a McKinsey study, 92 million tons of clothing, including unsold items, are thrown away each year worldwide. Approximately 300 billion pieces of clothing are thrown away and either incinerated or disposed of in landfills. Furthermore, as the world's population grows, the mass discarding of clothing is expected to accelerate. In France, the world's first law banning the disposal of clothing was enacted in January 2022. In Japan, approximately 500,000 tons of clothing are disposed of as combustible or noncombustible waste every year, and only about 5% of this is recycled*.

Source｜Ministry of the Environment, Sustainable Fashion

As an initiative to address the problem of fashion loss (i.e., discarded clothing), the Ministry of the Environment has developed a new concept of "sustainable fashion",RENU, a polyester recycled from used fibers.

In collaboration with ITOCHU Textile Company, which provides RENU, polyester recycled from used fibers, we have launched a service called Wear to Fashion starting in 2022.

Integrated system of collection, sorting, and reuse/recycling　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Working together with companies, brands, and consumers, we will increase the number of "don't throw away" options in the world.

Wear to Fashion is an initiative to introduce the service to partner companies, brands, and municipalities, collect clothes from consumers at various collection points, and link them to reuse and recycling. Sei-katsu-sha provide clothing to the Wear to Fashion initiative as a "don't throw away" option, and companies take responsibility for reusing and recycling the clothing. This is an attempt to reduce the amount of clothing thrown away by consumers and companies working together.

Wear to Fashion collects clothing for various types of disposal related to the fashion industry.

Clothing collected at various locations will be collected by ecommit and sorted at locations throughout Japan.　The sorted items are reused and recycled.

• Sold again to consumers (reuse)
• Reborn into new materials and clothes (horizontal recycling)
• Reused for different purposes through the recycling process (other recycling)

Collaborating with various companies and local governments to increase the number of collection sites to more than 1,000

We are seeking partners to expand to 10,000 locations by the end of 2023. Since its release, the Wear to Fashion service has expanded at a faster-than-expected pace,

Since its release, Wear to Fashion has expanded faster than expected, with more than 1,000 collection locations and nearly 3,000 locations including traditional Ecomit locations. In addition to the fashion industry, there has been an increase in the number of cases and consultations with developers to set up and collect items at events and set up collection boxes in commercial facilities.

However, we still need to make a bigger impact to face this major issue and bring about a change in the world. To this end, we would like to form partnerships with more companies and brands in other industries, expand collection points to stations, condominiums, and other locations in our daily lives, and take on the challenge of creating a recycling infrastructure that allows consumers to bring in their clothes and participate in the process without even being aware of it.

• Partner Company

  

• Wear to Fashion Operators

• Reference URL

  Wear to Fashion

  http://renu-project.com/wear-to-fashion/[1]