Yes, you read that headline right! Fast-fashion giant Zara, under the company Inditex, has promised that by 2025 a whopping 100 per cent of their cotton, linen and polyester materials will be organic, sustainable and recycled.
As the world’s third-largest apparel company, just behind Christian Dior and Nike, this announcement from popular brand Zara is making significant waves in the fast-fashion industry. This news follows on the heels of UNIQLO, who recently said they’d reduce single-use plastic by 85% by 2020, and Burberry, who plans to be completely carbon neutral by 2022. In light of all this positive change, we’re anticipating other clothing brands, particularly fast-fashion brands, to pick up their sustainability slack as well.
The best part is, it’s not just Zara. All eight brands under Inditex, including Pull & Bear, Zara Home, Massimo Dutti, and more, are aiming for that 2025 sustainability deadline.
The best best part? There’s more!
Inditex getting rid of plastic bags by 2020
At the company’s Annual General Meeting, Inditex executive chairman Pablo Isla also announced that by 2020, they’re fully eliminating the use of plastic bags. Zero. None. Kaput. By next year, you won’t be getting any more plastic bags from Inditex to stuff in your plastic bag drawer.
And if you haven’t noticed yet, your local Zara and Zara Home, as well as Massimo DUtti and Uterqüe, no longer give their customers plastic bags anyway. Everyone’s rocking blue Zara paper bags, and have been for a while now.
Damn.
What does all this mean for consumers?
Sustainability is sexy. It’s the only path forward. We want to be trendy and rock the latest pieces without contributing to our planet’s decline. But before you waltz over to shop at Zara, it’s important to note that today, only 20% of Zara’s collections are made from sustainable fabrics.
And even though they are eliminating single-use plastics, sustainability comes from each step of the process of making clothes. If Zara wants to be completely sustainable, it will have to redefine most of the processes throughout the production cycle. The brand has six years to deliver on this massive promise.
Just to drive our point even further, there’s also the question of how long these clothes manage to stay in our wardrobes. You want clothes that won’t disintegrate after two washes. After all, in the UK alone, 235 million items of clothing were sent to the landfill in 2017. Quality, sustainable fashion is a responsibility that both brands and consumers must take seriously.
So what’s the moral of the story? Despite all these grim realities and challenges, it’s still good to know that huge brands are taking big steps to take better care of our planet. It gives sustainability advocates (aka babes) like us something to look forward to.
Imagine being able to walk into your local Zara (or your local anything) and buying a trendy, high-quality piece without the guilt or the remorse! Sounds like an ideal world to me.
Want to stay in the know when it comes to the latest in sustainable fashion? Subscribe to the Zizacious blog today!
