TextilTiger for a sustainable textile industry

Clothes are a wonderful thing. Thanks to them, we can reinvent ourselves again and again, discover hidden sides of ourselves, leave old roles behind, or simply (or above all): be ourselves. The right outfit opens doors for us. It determines whether we “belong” or not. An old but true saying sums it up: Clothes make people. Unfortunately, the high demand for textiles also has negative effects. The textile sector is the world's third-largest source of water pollution and land use. In addition, one tenth of all climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions come from it. In addition, clothing — whether cheap or expensive — is produced under very poor working conditions in third world countries.

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There is no need for newly produced garments

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We asked ourselves how we could drastically reduce the negative impact of our fashion consumption and came to the conclusion: We don't need any (or at least only a few) newly produced clothes. Practically every fashion trend has existed before. So why not simply use clothes that are already there? That is why TEXTILTIGER collects old clothes directly from households to prevent them from ending up in the trash. Our recycling partner RE TEXTIL then takes care of marketing so that the clothes remain in circulation and can continue to be worn. At RETEXTIL, even “unsustainable” parts (poor condition) are largely downcycled into recycled products such as cleaning cloths or insulation material.

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TEXTITIGER is climate-friendly

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Of course, we also asked ourselves how we could make our contribution to a genuine circular economy as climate-friendly as possible. Since we first need to know our emissions and savings potential, we turned to Climate Partner. Thanks to their professional help, TEXTILTIGER and RE TEXTIL have been climate-neutral since 2021. It is particularly important that we only use cargo bikes and electric vehicles for our trips. We offset emissions that we cannot (yet) avoid by making financial contributions to climate protection projects in Africa and India. Since transparency is important to us, interested parties can get an idea of it via the ID at Climate Partner [external link: https://fpm.climatepartner.com/tracking/17202-2111-1001/de?utm_source=(direct)&utm_medium=climatepartner.com] of our recycling partner.

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Social impact: More high-quality clothing at low prices

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In order to advance our goal of a sustainable future in the textile industry, we are doing important educational work at various events, such as the German Unity Day in Hamburg or our Panel Talk in Cologne. For us, this is not just about environmental effects and social impact on production conditions. Through increased collection and marketing of old clothes, more high-quality clothing is also being offered at reasonable prices, which is therefore available to people with lower incomes. Of course, it is also important to us that our work has no negative effects on non-profit clothing stores. Charitable institutions sometimes offer their own front door meetings or provide containers for collection, and anyone who clearly wants to donate to people in need can also always contact the organizations directly. In the end, however, the quantity of old clothes in households in particular is generally so large that supply (unfortunately) still far exceeds demand.

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sources:

• Europäisches Parlament: Umweltauswirkungen von Textilproduktion und -abfällen (Infografik);

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/de/headlines/society/20201208STO93327/

umweltauswirkungen-von-textilproduktion-und-abfallen-infografik

• Deutsches Rotes Kreuz: Mit Altkleidern werden viele soziale Projekte finanziert; https://

www.drk.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/meldung/mit-altkleidern-werden-viele-soziale-projektefinanziert/

• Diakonie Leipzig: Kleiderkammern; https://www.diakonie-leipzig.de/angebote_fuer_menschen_in_not_kleiderkammern_de.html