Food Waste
According to the BBC, over 900 million tonnes of food are thrown out each year, including a vast percentage coming from stores, houses, and restaurants. This is a recurring problem in which more food is purchased than is needed which is then either thrown away or it spoils due to improper storage. Food waste forms a dump and piles up in landfills, ultimately emitting greenhouse gas emissions and posing a significant threat to the environment. Simply these are unnecessary effects that can easily be resolved in a rather creative way.
Combining product and produce
We already know that the fashion industry is the second most polluting industry on the planet. What if we could find a connection between the number of clothing and food produced and discarded? Should we look at how we might combine the two to create sustainable clothing and fabrics from fruit and vegetable waste? Treehugger, sustainability for all illustrates, there are so many advantages to doing this. For instance, ‘farmers will not have to burn waste, which contributes to air pollution; less waste will be sent to landfills to rot and emit methane; arable land will be freed up to grow food rather than fabric crops; there will be less demand for fossil fuels to make synthetic fabrics; and fewer chemicals will be required to grow cotton, a high-input crop.’ The fashion industry is a great system to generate a powerful force, it can be a vital source of good change, and this might happen by exhibiting it by creating it in a sustainable way, such as the likes of food waste.
Change for real or for show?
Often there are a lot of trends and certain hype stories that are around for a while and then eventually die down. Some may say so for this innovative way of using waste to produce clothing; the idea of creating some form of change that has a tangible impact does not resonate to some, mainly because the idea of it seems pretty diabolical or just not ‘hitting the target market.’ We live in a generation where many consumers are mindful of what their garments are made of, and for many, they don't want to say it is made out of food waste. Therefore, there needs to be a campaign strategy in order to promote and enhance the idea of clothing being made in this way.
Successful Designs
There are many fashion brands creating designs out of waste. Here are the ones that caught my eye:
Gautam Gupta - He is an Indian based fashion designer and this is a great piece made from bamboo fibre.
Another design made from orange fibre made by Madhurima Singh
This T-shirt is made from seaweed by the brand Pangaia
Different types of garments and all made with different food wastage. Incredible looking quality doing wonders for the environment as well as the industry.