Increasing DMC's Green Footprint Through Alternative Solutions


Presented By: Layken Cahall

STages of a sample

• Development
• 1st Fit
• 2nd Fit
• Pre-Production

First big project... Organize Samples

• Keep current 3 months
• Box 6-8 month old samples
• Sample sale old undamaged items
• Toss older, damaged samples

older damaged samples??

• Garment has hole punch
• Permanent Marker throughout
• Sliced areas on garment from fittings

How does this affect the world?

• Textile waste occupies 5% of landfill space
• 85% of post consumer textile waste is not recycled
• Average U.S citizen tosses 70lbs of clothing and textiles annually

step 1

• Stop punching new samples
• Require vendors to send swatch of fabric used for samples
• Garment should be sent to DMC in mint condition and passed to tech in the same way

STep 2

• Use washable marker during fittings rather than permanent
• Samples can be cleaned when they become old enough to be in a sample sale
• Include marked samples in sample sale with "I'm Washable" hang tags

Now that we've saved the samples...

• Make sample sale a quarterly event open to the public more often
• Left over samples can be donated to charities and churches

CHarities for donating Maternity apparel

• Dignity U Wear
• Woman Space (http://www.womanspace.org/)
• Dress For Success (https://www.dressforsuccess.org/about-us/)

What about Damaged Samples?

• Recycle textile fibers to be made into something new!
• Mechanical vs Chemical fiber recycling
• Companies utilizing this technology: TEIJIN and Worn Again

Worn Again

• Started off creating footwear from recycled materials
• Currently focus on recycling blended fibers
• Partnerships with H&M and Puma
• Located in London (http://wornagain.info/contact/)

TEIJIN

• Japanese chemical and pharmaceutical company
• Focus on manufacturing high performance fibers
• Able to chemically recycle polyester
• Recently participated in Outdoor Retailer Summer Market in Salt Lake City, Utah. (http://www.teijin.com/news/2015/ebd150731_31.html

"Textile products recycled today are mostly or entirely recyclable. In most cases, 100% recyclable"
-World Wear Project

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